“Have you ever had a secret you couldn’t tell anyone?” Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner) asks Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart). Yes, Jacob, and here it is. I was bitten by an inexplicable desire to see The Twilight Saga: New Moon on its opening Friday night, despite the crowds and sold out shows. Judging by the shrieks and squeals from the teenage girls that filled the theater, this film will score big with its target audience. As for the adults, The Twilight Saga: New Moon is not as, uh, “good” as its predecessor, but is still a bit of harmless fun.

In this installment, Edward (Robert Pattinson), breaks up with Bella (for her own good) and leaves town with his family. Bella, whose IQ seems to have lost a few points, believes his lies that their great love is over. This plot point is a real problem for the film. The characters/actors that most interest the audience are only on screen together at the start and end of the film. And dreamy Pattinsion is missing altogether for most of the film. Unfortunately, Edward takes his very interesting family, Dr. Carlisle Cullen (Peter Facinelli), Esme Cullen (Elizabeth Reaser), Emmett Cullen (Kellan Lutz) and Rosalie Hale (the underused Nikki Reed) with him when he leaves town. Sister Alice (Ashley Greene) does come to visit, and her scenes are very enjoyable, but the rest of the family is also absent for most of the film. So where does that leave Bella? After moping around and ignoring her father and friends, Bella is left to a pack of wolves. The CGI wolves look cool, but the plot is a bit underdeveloped. And we don’t get back to the real story until the end of the film.

Once again, Kristen Stewart is the best thing in The Twilight Saga: New Moon. Her Bella is dark and intriguing, even when the script has her sitting in a rocking chair mooning over Edward. She manages to infuse the laughable dialogue with real emotion, even when she has to say lines like “The pain is my only reminder that he was real.” When Bella gets out of the rocking chair, she chases adrenaline rushes that enable her to see Edward, and seeks comfort with friend Jacob.  Apparently there was some doubt about Taylor Lautner reprising his role as Jacob, but he promised to pack on some muscle and did.  Judging by the passionate moans from female audience members, the film’s most exciting scene is Jacob taking off his shirt and handing it to Bella to use as a handkerchief.  He sure looks adorable, but Lautner is not a compelling enough actor to make his many scenes interesting. The story of Jacob and Bella takes up much of the film, and needs to be stronger. The wolf pack story has potential, but the CGI wolves are more interesting than the wolf pack boys.

Unlike the first Twilight, this film lacks a frightening villain, and real danger for Bella. Vampire Victoria (Rachelle Lefevre) puts in a brief appearance, but we are never really afraid for Bella, and Victoria seemed more menacing in the earlier film. The film’s final scenes are more what I expected, but they are too brief.  Michael Sheen, so wonderful in Frost/Nixon is delightfully funny and scary, as Aro, the head of some kind of vampire tribunal in Rome.  The best scenes in the film have Sheen embracing this role, and I wish he had a larger part. The film has a few other funny scenes, such as when Edward explains that being a vampire is “not a lifestyle choice” and a shot of a Virgin airplane in the sky when the characters fly to Rome. Moments like these make the film better, but The Twilight Saga: New Moon needs more of them.

At the end of the film, we get to see sparkly Edward with his shirt off, and that certainly adds to the film’s appeal. But the film needs more than that to make it work. The last Twilight was a bit of an all female affair, with screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg working from the novel by Stephenie Meyer, and  Catherine Hardwicke ably directing. She was set to direct this one too, but conflict led to director Chris Weitz. Perhaps that is what is responsible for the different feel of this film. It is still fun, but at 130 minutes, The Twilight Saga: New Moon seems unnecessarily bloated.

 

The Twilight Saga: New Moon. Directed by Chris Weitz. Kristen Stewart (Bella Swan), Robert Pattinson (Edward Cullen), Billy Burke (Charlie Swan), Taylor Lautner (Jacob Black), Ashley Greene (Alice Cullen), Peter Facinelli (Dr. Carlisle Cullen), Elizabeth Reaser(Esme Cullen), Kellan Lutz(Emmett Cullen), Nikki Reed(Rosalie Hale) Graham Greene (Harry Clearwater), Dakota Fanning(Jane),Rachelle Lefevre (Victoria) and Michael Sheen(Aro). Summit Entertainment, 2009.

 

Gail sees a movie appears every Wednesday.

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