Vampires rise again. Fans of Edward and Bella howled with anticipation for The Twilight Saga: New Moon. They wondered about Bella’s walk with Jacob Black and the werewolves. Author Stephanie Meyer drew from her Mormon roots to create a veiled meditation on sexual anxiety. The Twilight series explores how much romance you can engage in without getting bit.
While New Moon swept the box office, an old-fashioned romance such as Bright Star was overlooked. Were the chaste corsets holding back poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne too distant from today’s teens? Fanny is a smart seamstress, Keats a penniless poet. Their families share a common wall that literally separates John and Fanny. Keats plunges their passions into enduring poems such as “La Belle Dame Sans Merci.” Bright Star shows that strong sexual feelings can be expressed in productive and even transcendent ways.
Four independent films that premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival aim to reinvent teen romance. An Education demonstrates the allure of “older men.” Carey Mulligan portrays Jenny as a smart, college-bound student tired of listening to her family. As David, Peter Sarsgaard arrives with a flashy car and rakish appeal. He whisks Jenny off to swinging 60s London. An Education is a sobering wake-up call for teens who think “I’m too smart to get in that kind of trouble.”
In Adam, a young man has difficulty expressing his true feelings (no surprise); but what if those truncated emotions are rooted in Asperger’s Syndrome? Now that’s a complication! Adam (an Oscar-worthy Hugh Dancy) alternates between childlike wonder and uncontained rage against “neurotypicals.” Only his neighbor, Beth, takes the time to draw Adam out. What begins as compassion moves toward genuine love, but will she always be in caretaking role? How can they possibly proceed as equals? Asperger’s serves as a metaphor for all of us stuck in a relationship in our head.
Paper Hearts appears to be a documentary. Alterna-comedian Charlene Yi doesn’t believe in love, but she asks couples how they maintained their marriages. Between interviews, Charlene falls for actor Michael Cera (playing himself). Finding private time away from the video cameras becomes their playful game, but the film ultimately plays games with the audience. It is a fictional story about a documentarian in search of love. The dating scene is tough enough without so many layers of hiding. Where does Charlene Yi’s heart reside? She covers it up in telling ways.
500 Days of Summer became an underground hit. The captivating Zooey Deschanel stars as the titular Summer. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Tom, a Los Angeles greeting card writer. They’re drawn together by a love of The Smiths. Tom’s ready to commit, while Summer’s content with a “friendship with benefits.” 500 Days of Summer flashes back to what went wrong, finding telling reasons why they broke up. It offers valuable perspective for teens stymied by the dating game.
