Debora Dale Alt logo
ROMANTIC SUSPENSE
where fear and passion collide
Debora Dale Alt logo
ROMANTIC SUSPENSE
where fear and passion collide

The last movie to excite me was Harry Potter – pick a number in the series, it doesn’t matter, I enjoyed them all. My daughter was the age of the main characters when the first film came out. She has matured along with Harry, Hermione and Ron. She ‘gets’ it now. She follows the emotional reactions that are so much more complicated now than they were when the characters – and she – were so young.

 

I enjoy Harry Potter because of the fantasy. The way the films – and of course, the books – took my daughter’s imagination to a new level. She was fascinated by something exciting and new, and I watched her enjoyment with my own.

 

And so it was again today when, together, we saw a matinee of Twilight.

 

 Twilight, Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, Edward and Bella

Twilight will captivate your teen. There’s no question in my mind about this. The girls will definitely relate to the teen heroine, Bella. They will understand her angst, her passion, her confusion and her ever-so-teen-like superiority and awkwardness.

 

While I watched this movie, I thought like a writer – and no, I have not yet read the books but do intend to. I watched the first hour or so with intense interest. There was little physical action, yet I was drawn in. I listened to every word spoken, because every word spoken sounded and felt like it mattered. And it did. To the seventeen year old heroine. And to me – a one-time teen. I understood her. I WAS her at one time in my life. Not that I experienced the same events she did, because, let’s face it, to my knowledge, I never fell in love with a vampire. But, I did experience the same emotions. The same doubts, needs, desires.

 

The beginning of the movie introduces us to high-schoolers just months before their junior prom. They are children on the cusp. Their passions run deep and pure. Their emotions, all-consuming. They react, not act – the exact opposite of what I try to teach Daughter now so when the time comes, she’s prepared.

 

As if.

 

Who is ever prepared for the tsunami of teenaged emotions?

 

It’s to that issue this movie speaks. Strike all logic and forethought from your mind if you see this. Consider instead the needs of teens. Consider how paramount each moment is to them – or was to you. Consider how vital it was to just be with the boy you liked – to just have him smile at you. Heck… to just have him LOOK your way. All that and more is what oozes from this film. The acting. The writing. The filming. The memories we bring to the theater. They all work together to make this romance – which is the crux of the film – palpable. Identifiable. Believable.

 

I’m thrilled Daughter and I were able to see this today – the first showing in my area. And I’m thrilled we were able to see it together. Most of all, I was thrilled each time I glanced over at her and saw that – no matter how complex the behaviors seemed to be – she ‘got’ it.