THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN - PART 1

Edward and Bella get married. A day of great celebration, where friends and family of the two lovers gather in the forest for the ceremony… everyone except Jacob, who, angry at Bella’s choice, fled to Canada after receiving the wedding invitation. The two head to Esme, a Brazilian island, to spend their honeymoon, but after a night of sex, Bella realizes she is pregnant. The pregnancy is abnormal, too fast and with terrible side effects that have repercussions on the girl’s health. In Bella’s womb is a vampire fetus that, as it develops, absorbs the life of the human mother. Back in Forks, Edward must find a solution to save his wife’s life and for this, he is helped by his family and by Jacob, while the other werewolves of the pack prepare to declare war on the Cullens to take the baby that Bella carries in her womb, a potential threat to their race and proof of the vampires’ breach of the pact. And so the saga of "Twilight" is almost coming to an end. The more than 2 billion dollars in revenue so far make the cinematic adaptation of Stephenie Meyer’s novels one of the most profitable film products of recent years and the release of the grand finale, divided into two parts, will only increase this global success. "Breaking Dawn" is thus released in two parts, a bit like it happened with the last Harry Potter – another record-breaking literary/cinematic saga – to not sacrifice the substantial material that makes up the last novel in the series (and because, let’s be honest, two revenues are better than one!). Almost 700 pages where the monotony of the tormented love triangle Edward-Bella-Jacob – which remains central – is broken to make room for elements of sufficient pathos and plot twists. Consequently, the film, or at least this first part, is enhanced by the discreet starting material that makes "Breaking Dawn – Part 1" so far the most complete and best-structured episode of this cinematic saga. The cloying Harmony novel phrases of which the first three episodes are (rightly?) filled have decreased in number and "Braking Dawn" starts with the announced marriage to focus on a story of widely dramatic scope. The screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg, author of the scripts for the entire saga, seems to have progressively learned the mistakes made time and time again and precisely for this reason "Breaking Dawn" shows that assurance that was missing in the films seen so far. The romantic atmosphere remains, to which is added a dramatic element different from that of "New Moon", more adult and engaging that this time puts the lives of the characters at stake. The action in the strict sense that was staged in "Eclipse" is reduced (although a frantic, albeit brief, hand-to-hand battle between the Cullens and the werewolves does not lack) but the suspense, in this case linked precisely to the fate of the characters, increases, even if we all know/imagine how the story will end. "Braking Dawn" also adds a bit of irony, culpably absent from the other chapters, which manifests itself through the behavior of some secondary characters during the initial ceremony and in the awkward and chaste night of sex between Edward and Bella. The horror element, accentuated by David Slade in "Eclipse", seems here initially completely absent. Between the marriage and the honeymoon, we completely forget that we have a vampire before our eyes and we rather seem to be watching one of the many American comedies about the difficulties of the couple, then, when the killer fetus comes into play, the tone changes. Horror in the strict sense is never really present, considering also the "famous" childbirth scene that the tabloids of half the world had announced as gory. Don’t believe them, you see nothing, it is almost all subjective and even the umbilical cord, you don’t understand where it has gone to end. This story of the vampire fetus that literally empties Bella is not bad at all, with almost Cronenberg-like echoes, I would dare say, and it is magnificently rendered by the director Bill Condon, helped by the very credible special effects of John Bruno, who manages to transform Bella into a living skeleton. We are nevertheless faced with the same rhetoric that accompanies the entire series, a now clear institutional intention to educate young Americans in the healthy principles of puritanism. Therefore, after the evacuation of any negative connotation of the figures of the vampire and the werewolf (on the contrary, an approach to divinity), after the discouragement of premarital sex, the valorization of youthful virginity and the essentiality of the sacrament of marriage, comes the moment of procreation. Sex, here welcomed and practiced, is nevertheless a vehicle of evil, disease, contamination: Bella risks her life because she had sex – it doesn’t matter if after marriage! – and this manifests itself through a deadly being that suspiciously reflects on the girl’s physical appearance as a metaphor for AIDS. Obviously, abortion is not even conceivable: Bella does not want it and the fetus cannot be removed, on pain of death of the mother. A vision nevertheless fully in line with the rules of horror, in which sex is synonymous with death. Cast of faces known to the public of the saga to which is added the fleeting appearance of Maggie Grace ("The Fog – Nebbia assassina"; "Io vi troverò") in the role of Irina, a vengeful vampire for the death of her beloved and wicked Laurent. Bill Condon, dear to horror fans for the underrated "Candyman 2 – Inferno nello specchio" and Oscar winner for the musical film "Dreamgirls", is the new acquisition in the director’s chair, although the change is not felt more, as for the other episodes of a stylistically leveled saga. Good the soundtrack. In the saga of "Twilight", we can therefore notice a progressive improvement from film to film, so this first part of "Breaking Dawn" seems so far the most convincing, also helped by a more adult tone of the narrative material. Turn and turn, however, we are always in the product thought and realized for the fans of the saga, rich in annoying goodism, rhetoric and political correctness. But this is the universe of Twilight. P.S. Do not leave during the end credits, there is a surprise after the first credits.