THOUGHTS ON KRISTEN STEWART

My last review of the classic "Snow White" inspired me to think of the upcoming film's star; Kristen Stewart. To call an actress like Stewart polarizing is to display a misuse of the word; people hate, in bold, italics and underline, HATE her.  Legions of computer dwelling kids sitting at their laptops blogging how much they want to beat the entire crew of "Twilight" senseless. Well...not all bloggers are bad you know.

I don't hate Stewart, Pattinson or Lautner.  They've all had good roles in other movies ("Adventureland," "Water for Elephants" and "Sharkboy and Lavagirl" respectively) and the fact they're not very good in "Twilight" might just be a fluke.  Actors have misses, a heck of a lot more than hits anyway.  And while of course the "Twilight" series is one of the world's biggest franchises, the cluster of hatred and parody towards is nearly overwhelming.

A really good Stewart in "Adventureland"

I'll get to Stewart in a second, but let me give you a quick review of "Twilight," when I saw it with a group of my co-workers at the camp I was counseling on our day off (and why that movie was chosen is a good mystery):  It was terrible.  Going in with a negative demeanor didn't help the film's cause, but the movie itself was just plain bad, the acting, the direction, and that sparkling body in the sun scene made me want to punch a baby animal.  Watching the following sequels were out of the question.

But there are tons of bad movies out there, this one just caught on with leagues of teenage girls. Because Stewart is bad in these films, is she necessarily a bad actress?  Placed in the right film/situation, her moody, dark girl persona can be put to good use.  Take "Adventureland" for example.  She played a complicated character who was sleeping with an amusement park boss but had a crush on Jesse Eisenberg, but didn't know how to express it to him.  She was good in that role, despite the IMDb fact that she nervously touched her hair 55 times throughout the movie, which is hard to believe.

Early reviews of the upcoming "Snow White and the Huntsman" have already pointed fingers at Stewart's performance as a weak point, citing it, as critic Jeff Myers did, as "earnest blandness" and "pained grimaces."  That's the one thing I know Stewart knows about herself, that she can't bring herself to smile in the second half of a movie. At times during "Twilight" or "Advenutreland" (or even "Zathura," remember that movie?) you just want to shake her and tell her to perk up.  Her "Twilight" paycheck is something like $12,500,000.  Some movies budgets aren't that high.

If it sounds like I'm ragging on Stewart, I'm not.  I'm simply suggesting a wake-up call to her, because her "Twilight" franchise is just about to run out, and her indies ("The Runaways," "Welcome to the Rileys") have both gotten mixed reviews and low box-office results.  What would be great, with all the film opportunities she's going to get after the series, is to consider a happier, embracing role, a go-against-type sort of thing like Mo'Nique did in "Precious," though I doubt Stewart is in for an Oscar anytime soon.  Let's all hope she can clean off her "Twilight" blood stain and embark on an actually stimulating movie career.