He's immediately attracted to her as well, despite the fact that he nearly vomits the first time they sit together; turns out that he's a vampire, forever 17, and comes from a vegetarian clan of sorts that drinks the blood of animals rather than humans.

Edward at first keeps his distance from Bella, but she's intrigued by the quirky pale guy, and when he saves her from a runaway vehicle that's about to crush her to death, there's no going back. Soon Bella meets Edward's extended family, some of whom welcome her more warmly than others. And Edward meets Bella's dad, Sheriff Swan (Burke), a good man trying to reconnect with his daughter (the parents are divorced).

But love is never, ever easy, especially not love between a vampire and a human. Plus, there are other vampires lurking about, and let's just say they're not vegetarians. They're picking off locals, including a pal of Sheriff Swan's. And one of the baddie vamps, James (Gigandet), fancies Bella as a tasty snack and eventually threatens her father and mother (Clarke).

More heart than bite

Twilight fans across the planet have been waiting, pining, dying for this movie to open, and now that it's finally here they're bound to be satisfied, but not blown away. As directed by Hardwicke, Twilight captures the essence of its source. It's a romance, a teen-angst drama and a talking-heads chamber piece, with snippets of action and flashes of horror and vampire mythology. It is not—let's repeat that, NOT—a blood-soaked, sexed-up horror movie and, really, not a vampire film. That stuff's all window dressing designed to bolster the Bella-Edward love story.

So, acknowledging Twilight as a teen romance movie aimed at high-school girls, does it work? Short answer: Yes, for the most part. Pattinson broods with the best of them, he possesses a certain charm, and, most importantly, he clicks with Stewart. There's an easy chemistry between them, and Hardwicke uses that to her advantage, letting the leads communicate without talking. Stewart, meanwhile, is totally believable as an angsty but grounded teen who's so head-over-heels in love with Edward that she'll overlook the fact that he's a century old, drinks blood and must constantly fight the urge to kill her. He finds all that endearing, at one pointing marveling, "I tell you I can read minds ... and you think something is wrong with you."

Hardwicke makes the most of both her locations and limited special-effects budget. Twilight is visually atmospheric, with lots of wide vista shots of the rugged Washington terrain. And the effects-driven sequences—Edward showing off his powers and whisking Bella to the top of a tree, a Cullen family baseball outing, Edward glistening/sparkling in the light, and the extended fight scene at the end—are slick but just convincing enough.

For all that, Twilight—at two hours plus—moves too slowly too often. Some people will want to scream at the screen when Edward stares at Bella yet again or when Hardwicke lingers on a close-up of Edward's eyes. And even at such an expansive running time, several of the actors obviously lost scenes to the editing process. Facinelli still registers as Dr. Carlisle Cullen, Edward's "father" and the compassionate, always calm leader of the Cullen clan, but Edi Gathegi, who plays the reasonable vampire Laurent to Gigandet's nasty James and Lefevre's spiteful Victoria, deserves better treatment. Reed's hostile Rosalie is hardly even an afterthought, and several of the actresses (Kendrick, Serratos) who play Bella's human friends vanish for huge chunks of the movie. Still, the film more than capably manages the all-important job of sucking moviegoers—even newbies—into the Twilight universe, which will be further explored when Hardwicke, Stewart, Pattinson and everyone who survives Twilight returns for the sequel, New Moon, which is in preproduction now and based on Meyer's far superior second book.