The movie follows the life of Bella (Kristen Stewart), a normal teenage girl who has moved to Forks, Washington to live with her father. She is thrust into a new home, a new school, and a new life. While she is there, she hears rumors about a strange group of kids who keep to themselves. She eventually meets one of them, Edward (Robert Pattinson), who appears to find her repulsive (not a very good experience for a self-conscious girl trying to acclimate herself to new surroundings). Later, he saves her from a car wreck using super-human abilities. As they begin to form a friendship, Bella eventually figures out that he is a vampire, and one who must struggle within himself against his instincts to kill and eat her.

Although this movie really is for teenage girls, I quite enjoyed it. The film is dark in spots (vampires mutilating people, for instance), but overall has a light-hearted feel. As mentioned earlier, the vampires play baseball. Why? For fun! The "good" vampires enjoy having their own brand of fun, don't sleep, and are "vegetarians" (which means that they only eat animals, not humans). The movie explores teenage issues of fitting in, dating, school dances, and a little danger and adventure as well. But through it all, there are either situations or dialogue that are simply amusing. My favorite line of the movie involves Edward, commenting on Jacob (a Native American whose ancestors supposedly include wolves). Jacob had been speaking to Bella, who came to the school dance with Edward, while Edward was away temporarily. Edward remarks, "I leave you alone for five minutes and the wolves descend." I laughed out loud at that one. Another hilarious moment involves Bella absolutely freaking out at the thought of Edward leaving. It was so over-the-top, yet believable that a teenage girl would do so.

What carries this film is the cast. While the lead actors turned in great performances, the supporting cast really made this movie stellar. I was impressed with Bella's father, played by Billy Burke whose calm and somewhat sad demeanor connect us to the small and rural town of Forks, and Taylor Lautner as Jacob who is sure to have more screen time in future films. However, I was most intrigued by Peter Facinelli who portrays Dr. Carlisle Cullen, Edward's "vampire daddy" (my words, not the film's). Peter looks like a blond Tom Cruise. As patriarch of the Cullen clan, he sets the tone for all of them.

On the flip side, there are some things about this movie which are simply bizarre and distract from the film (although I'm sure millions of girls across the country would disagree). The best example of this is the fact that every vampire in the film, including most glaringly the males, are heavily coated in make-up. They wear white powder on their faces, a thick coat of mascara on their eyes, and, disgustingly enough, lipstick. Why that seems to attract the young ladies is beyond me. I'm just glad that I'm not a teenage boy anymore who might find myself being tempted to imitate them in order to get some attention.

I came away from this movie understanding the phenomenon of the Twilight series of books, and now, films. And while I am not inclined to go crazy over super-human boys who wear makeup, I did have fun seeing extraordinary things from a young girl's point of view. Thumbs up!

Venture into the world of vegetarian vampires.