There's nothing particularly unique about the story of "Twilight" on the surface. Boy meets girl. Girl falls in love. Boy turns out to have a long pair of fangs destined for her luscious young neck."Twilight" is a Romeo-and-Juliet tale with a twist. Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) is a sweet, clumsy high school student who moves to Forks, Wash. to stay with her police chief father, Charlie (Billy Burke), when her mother gets remarried. There she meets Edward (Robert Pattinson), the gorgeous, seductive young man who's impossibly fast and strong and his skin is ice cold.

He's 17 and he's been 17 for a while. And his appeal to tweens and their mothers — and certain column writers — is bound to last awhile, too.

Edward's family, the Cullens, are vampires as well, but fortunately for Bella, they are "vegetarian" vampires as they like to call themselves and only feed on animals. Unfortunately, not all vampires share their compunctions about feeding on humans and when three such vampires catch Bella in the Cullens' midst, she becomes a tasty prize.

The movie is obviously a small budget character film that has suddenly been shoehorned into a blockbuster role. It's been put into a studio tent pole position, a role that doesn't quite fit. The special effects are passable — no bits that are clearly green screened, the deft touch of Industrial Lights and Magic make their own sort of magic — but not impressive the way a movie with such hype should be.

Particularly awful is a scene in which Edward reveals what he looks like in the light, described in the book as though his skin was made of diamonds. What reads well on the page doesn't always translate to impressive on the screen. This effect, as Edward turns angsty and melodramatically toward the camera, results in guffaws instead of awed sighs.

Any sin can be forgiven, though, for the sake of the on screen couple. When Edward and Bella share the screen, they gain a gravity that pulls every member of the audience into their orbit. The two have an undeniable chemistry and the yearning between the two is painful and beautiful and carries even the cheesiest lines.

The love story makes this film a winner no matter what. And it means I'm going back again and again and again...

Mariah Mercer is the features editor of the Review Times. She is looking for her own sparkly, broody vampire to love.