REVIEW: Twilight (12A)

It’s a question that is raised every year by film fans, particularly at Christmas time - can any movie franchise topple Harry Potter? Many have come, few have succeeded. Narnia, The Golden Compass, Stormbreaker, Eragon...whilst none of these were complete failures, they came up short when faced with such a hard act to follow. It’s clear that to reach such a high target studios have to produce something special, so here we have Twilight, an adaptation of a gothic novel by Stephenie Meyer.

Twilight is the story of Bella (Kristin Stewart), a disaffected teen moving to a cold and gloomy town to live with her emotionally stunted father. Her life changes, however, when she meets Edward (Rob Pattinson), a mysterious boy at her school. The pair become fascinated by each other, but their love comes up against a rather large obstacle - Edward is a vampire. With the instincts of Edward’s vampirism directly clashing with their love, the pair struggle to be together, and an evil gang of new vampires, led by the sadistic James (Cam Gigandet), puts their love in further jeopardy.

The film’s biggest strength is its originality, given that the vampire movie is hardly a fresh sub-genre. It could easily have been the new Buffy, and does feel an awful lot like a modern version of The Lost Boys, but director Catherine Hardwick’s decision to remain as faithful to the book as possible means that whilst there is a lot of teen angst and meaningful stares, there’s an interesting plot to get your teeth into (pun intended). What’s also interesting is the chaste nature of Edward and Bella’s relationship. There’s sexual tension in abundance, but the dangers that intimacy presents to the pair makes the on-screen chemistry even more intriguing.

Hardwicke has had some great actors to work with in the past, directing Emile Hirsch and the late Heath Ledger in Lord of Dogtown, so the cast is littered with young actors chosen for their acting prowess rather than their ability to fill a tight T-Shirt.  Therefore what could have been a glossy studio movie now has the feel of an indie, although at its heart Twilight is still a high school drama. Pattinson looks born to play the undead, and whilst looking stricken and tormented is largely his M.O., he does a solid job. Stewart is the strongest of the cast, carrying the movie through its cheesier moments and putting in a fairly mature performance for such a young actress.

As mentioned, it’s more The O.C. than Nosferatu, but what Twilight has going for it is an interesting and unusual story, which leaves you wanting to see more whilst still being its own story. It may not appeal to everyone, but female teen audiences will love it, and whilst it’s not perfect it is definitely a movie that would be able to compete with the boy wizard.

Twilight hits UK cinemas December 19.

See Rob and the rest of the cast at the Twilight UK premiere below