Twilight **** (2008, Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Billy Burke, Anna Kendrick) – Classic Movie Review 7874

Kristen Stewart stars in director Catherine Hardwicke’s 2008 romantic vampire movie Twilight as the glum and gloomy Bella Swan, who moves in to live with her worried father Charlie Swan (Billy Burke) in the rainy little town of Forks, Washington.

She starts at her new high school, and meets classmates Eric (Justin Chon), Mike (Michael Welch), Jessica (Anna Kendrick), Angela (Christian Serratos) and Roslie (Nikki Reed), as well as – gasp! – the mysterious weird-looking boy Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson). Although Edward is very pale, hairy and cold and does not eat, Bella is magnetically attracted to him, and passionate, unorthodox inter-species romance follows.

Further complications arrive along with the decidedly cute, long-haired Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner), who keeps shooting longing glances in Bella’s direction, miffing Edward. Then Edward takes Bella home to meet his Cullen family – Emmet (Kellan Lutz), Alice (Ashley Greene) and Jasper (Jackson Rathbone), and further complications arrive. Peter Facinelli plays Dr Carlisle Cullen, supposedly Edward’s dad.

Screenplay writer Melissa Rosenberg adapts the bestselling novel by Stephenie Meyer with some considerable skill, bringing on the eerie atmosphere, romance and some humour too. The film is an event in terms of atmosphere, story-telling, action, romance and excitement. It is cute, though a little bit cheesy and corny, yet darned near irresistible.

Director Catherine Hardwicke makes enormous use of her locations, which are both either real local Americana or creepy woods and fields, mixing reality and fantasy expertly. Commendably, she keeps the CGI, visual and special effects, stunts and wire work to a minimum. It works well to keep it real, oddly so as it is a fantasy film.

The two main performances are attractive and appealing, and Billy Burke is excellent in star support as the Forks town sheriff. Cam Gigandet (James), Rachelle Lefevre (Victoria) and Edi Gathegi (Laurent) have a good time as the menacing bad guys threatening the Cullens and Bella. It is an excellent cast of mainly young actors, doing good stuff, though some of them could do with more to do. The script really focuses in on Bella and Edward, just like the director does with her cameras, and that really pays off. It is, after all, their story, this first episode.

Almost incredibly, Twilight celebrated its tenth anniversary on 21 November 2008 in America. Its London UK premiere was on 3 December 2008, with its release on 19 December 2008.

Odeon cinemas in the UK are celebrating the UK tenth anniversary with a special screening of Twilight on 3 December 2018. It is accompanied by an entertaining new short feature, The Twilight Tour… 10 Years Later. Director Catherine Hardwicke and actor Jackson Rathbone (who plays the part of Jasper Hale) re-visit key filming locations, including the to-die-for Cullen House, and reminisce about the time the cast and crew had making The Twilight Saga.

Twilight was a box office bonanza for production companies Summit Entertainment, Temple Hill Entertainment and Maverick Films, Costing $37,000,000, it grossed $192,769,854 in the US, with a cumulative worldwide gross of $392,616,625.

Cam Gigandet was cast as Emmet Cullen, but asked director Catherine Hardwicke if he could play the role of James instead.

Book author Stephenie Meyer has a cameo as Diner Customer.

It is followed by The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009), The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010), The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 (2011) and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 (2012).

In 2018 Kristen Stewart admitted that she wouldn’t be against a reboot.

On 26 November 2018, Anna Kendrick hilariously tweeted: ‘Holy shit. I just remembered I was in Twilight.’ She has quite a lot to do at the start of the film, and does it cutely, but her part just sort of peters out, as the film focuses on the Cullens and not the school.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7874

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com