The four page (4 Page. Four. Page.) spread in today’s New York Times hails the upcoming Twilight New Moon film as “The Movie Event of the Year.”
Hmmm.
Don’t misunderstand me. I was taken with the movie Twilight. I didn’t see it in the theater, but Bill and the boys and I watched it this summer in the comfort of our own home, and I was–yes–decidedly Taken with the whole thing. Who wouldn’t be taken with Edward’s smoldering stares, with the noble vows of these vampires to do no harm, with the magic of the northwestern coastal landscape and weather, with the awesome powers of the undead?
But I resent Hollywood’s notion that I am taken so far as to see the release of this motion picture as an “event.” Films are– in every instance, but especially when of the fictional variety– not events. They are the opposite of events. They are non-happenings, escapes from the events of our daily lives.
They are, in fact, Not Real.
I look forward to this next chapter in the lives of the vampires and werewolves, I do. I might even go see this movie in the theater this time– if only to look at the northwestern coastal landscape on the big screen. And I will continue to look– as ever– for the redemptive possibilities, for the parallels between Edward’s love for Bella as like unto (somehow?) Christ’s love for the church (am I hopeless?)(but who didn’t see it in his protectiveness, in his consuming passion? Isn’t that most familiar because of that Other, Perfect One?), for an example of what love (maybe?) should look like when it is a love that is most pure and (also therefore?) not entirely understandable.
But it will not be an Event. No. I think that kind of love only happens in Real Life.
