Twilight- New Moon
By Linda Winsh-Bolard
This is the long awaited second part of the series. It rains less in this one but the content is in shades of gray nevertheless; it does not grab it merely exists.
The vampire and the girl already got together, there seem to be little new to add unless the authors wish to answer questions such as: how will this relationship work when she is 50? Will he bite her?
The creators don’t answer this, or any other question, but they present at least one in color; literally.
Bella (Kristen Stewart) wakes up from a dream in which she became her own grandmother while still being in love with a teenage vampire, Edward (Robert Pattison). Realizing that she saw her future, Bella is terrified. In the best tradition of bodice rippers, her love is her life. Bella’s solution is therefore obvious: she will “change” and become a vampire herself.
The vampire’s answer is to go away. Permanently, one would hope.
Bella suffers; the suffering is, even for a hysterical teenager, prolonged and tedious. Finally she breaks through, somewhat, when she figures out that her beloved will show up to save her anytime she is in danger. Hence she stages dangers to get to him (poor vampire!) and that brings her closer to a nice Native American boy, Jake (Taylor Lautner) who is, just like everyone else in the film, in love with her.
Bella entices him but does not offer more than friendship. Then he too leaves her.
Depressed Bella also finds that she is in real danger, because the vampire Victoria wants to kill her. And her nice boy Jake turns out to be a werewolf. And her beloved Edward is in danger of committing suicide vampire style, as his sister Alice tells Bella.
If this all sounds thin and convulsed, then you got it. It’s thin and convulsed. Having already resolved the falling in love between a human and the one who wants to suck the human dry for dinner, the plot is wriggling around trying to find some way to keep the connection between the human and the deadly open.
Bella is sternly serious teenager obsessed with the idea of being in love, it never occurs to her (or the director Kathrine Hardwick) that she might be substantially more in love with the idea of being in love than the object onto which she latched her desires. Chaste desires, of course. The film does allow for some restrained kissing but that is that. Nobody in this film gets carnal. Possibly the teeth would get in the way.
The nicest part is when Bella and her friend are walking home from the movies and the friend dissects the film they just saw in the way natural to all over intellectual pseudo critics.
The attempt at humanizing monsters runs hollow. I saw this idea some time ago in a British TV show- all of it, vampires and werewolves (and ghosts) who fight to become more human. It was called Being Human. It was more engaging because it actually questioned what humans do and how they behave to one another as well as to those who are different. Nothing is questioned here. One love struck girl does not provide opportunity for any depth.
I can’t even begin to guess why two monsters would fight over a human whose main propensity in life seems to be the ability to get rescued. Must be that I am a mere human.
The last three minutes were particularly painful, despite the very nice pooch posing as werewolf.
That is not say that I cannot understand what the appeal is. To the very young immortal, everlasting love with no earthly ties (such as who is going to pay the rent) is irresistible. To the adults tired of slaving every day in lousy, underpaid jobs and crowded overpriced homes, the illusion of being loved for oneself with no demand on oneself is immensely appealing.
Bella embodies both ideas: she is the classical damsel in troubles always being saved by her immortal knights who love her forever –very chastely.
I get the appeal. I just don’t like long, thin films with nothing new to say. I don’t believe in fairy tales, even in toothy disguises.
