I am not ashamed to say that I am a fan of Twilight. Well, not that ashamed. I do still feel that I have to defend my enjoyment - I fully recognize the book series is hardly high-quality literature, and the movies are, well, no better than the books. I don't care. It's entertaining to say the least. It's a part of pop culture, and I've embraced it, while I am still critical of it's message.
New Moon is my favorite book in the series, and any Twi-hards will hate my reason - because Edward isn't there! That's not to say I prefer Jacob (and here I am with my mom drinking wine and counting down the minutes to
Taylor Lautner's big reveal... ahem) but it's nice to get that mopey Byronic hero out of the way for a little while. There is actually something really cool and unique about this series, that can at least be observed in the movies: female desire is actually taken seriously. It's not a gimmick, or played for cheap laughs, or pornographic. In most chick-flicks or teen movies, the main female protagonists dress scantily/sexily. Bella, however, dresses in ratty t-shirts, thermal knit, plaid and thick, shapeless coats, and is the one to push the boundaries of her and Edward's physical relationship. Meanwhile, in New Moon, Jacob spends more time with his shirt off than on, and even
Robert Pattinson as Edward gives the eager audience a little strip-tease. It should also be telling at this point that I haven't even mentioned our beta friends yet.
The Twilight Saga is not actually a female-driven story. It primarily revolves around Edward and Bella's obsession with him, while maybe 25% revolves around Jacob, and the final 10% actually addresses Bella's desires unrelated to either of these immortal dudes.
Yes, this week I'll be examining another two, because they get so little attention. Bella spends most of her time in this movie (when not pining over Edward and writing emails to Alice) with Jacob, but the dynamic isn't appropriate to call him her beta-friend. We'll go by order of appearance, to simplify things.
Jessica Stanley, played by break-out actress
Anna Kendrick, (gotta give a shout out to another Mainer!) is kind of a frenemy, as she has been transformed into a hybrid of Jessica Stanley, fair weather friend, and Lauren Mallory, a mean girl who will never be President of the Bella Swan fan club, from the novels. Anna Kendrick breathes as much life as possible into Jessica. The humans fall further and further out of the scene as the series progresses, but Jessica does earn some impressive moments in this installment. She's blunt and sarcastic, and it's wonderful. She has some truly brilliant lines, and while she whines about how she would like to talk about her own male-related angst, the majority of her conversation has nothing to do with boys. So, as Bella walks straight into a sketchy situation with some skeevy bikers, Jessica stands idly by, fretting just a little over her 'friend's' safety, but mostly thinking about herself, and the only reason she doesn't take off is because she doesn't want to be implicated if the sheriff's daughter is kidnapped. Jessica is a pretty typical teenager - completely self-involved and self-interested. Her role is small, but important, in grounding this story in a little bit of genuinely mundane humanity.
Stats:
Screen time: 3 minutes 5 seconds
Memorable quotes: "I don't know why you want to sit through all those zombies eating people and no hot guys kissing anybody, it's gross, like. And why are there that many zombie movies anyway? Is it supposed to like, draw a parallel to leprosy? My cousin had leprosy. It's not funny, you know? And like, is it supposed to be a metaphor for consumerism? 'Cause, don't be so pleased with your own, like, self-reverential cleverness, you know? Like, some girls like to shop..." "Like, your depression thing, I get it, I'm totally, totally, worried, but after a while it gets pretty old. I'm going through stuff too, you know?" "That 'homeboy' could have been a psycho!"
Alice Cullen, played by
Ashley Greene, is our immortal psychic, who, at least in the books, is Bella's 'best-friend'. Because I'm so familiar, I will divert from my movie character analysis for a bit to address this so-called friendship as it is written in the books: Bella and Alice are only besties because Stephenie Meyer says it is so. This is pretty debatable, as most of their time spent together is forced by Edward who feels that Jacob is an inappropriate friend for her, and Alice is the only one that can keep her safe when Edward is away. Bella doesn't actually like anything that Alice does to/with her (shopping, fashion, mani-pedi's, makeovers, fast cars), so I'm not sure there is actually anything even shallowly bonding these two as friends
other than Alice being a part of the Cullen's family. End rant. In the movies, Alice is ever optimistic and relentlessly coercing Bella into dressing up for social events that Bella would rather not attend. So, yes, why are they friends? Either Bella really
does like the attention, or she is incapable of standing up for herself, and is perfectly content to be pushed along by stronger personalities. Alice's purpose in this movie is as the Oracle that incites the hero to plunge recklessly into danger when a simple phone call could have resolved the whole misunderstanding. But, she also saves the day by
making a decision. Like I said, I am very critical of this series. Why does Alice's choice have more clout than any of Bella's? She wants to be a vampire, but she is powerless under Edward's reasoning, to the point where both of their lives are in danger. Sure, Stephenie Meyer is rewriting Romeo and Juliet with New Moon, but that's a pretty flimsy reason to make her characters so obstinately dense. But I digress. Alice is just a device to keep the story going and reunite the estranged lovers, though the term cannot be taken in the literal sense here, thanks to Meyer's sanitized, no-teen-sex-before-marriage stance. Most of Alice's best moments come when she is contrasted with Jacob. And, you would think that in the Volutri's lair the psychic could defend herself, like she proves she can in the next installment, but no, she is held captive by one of the guard for the duration of Edward's tussle with Felix. Alice loves Bella like a sister, but there is very little to back that up. Alice will, at least, help Bella get her way in the end, because of her ability to see the future. Alice should be way more kick-ass.
Stats:
Screen time: 9 minutes and 50 seconds
Memorable quotes: "I have never met anyone more prone to life-threatening idiocy!" "I can't see past you and you're pack of mutts!" "...As soon as you put the dog out." "I figured you wouldn't be opposed to grand theft auto."
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