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The movie opens as Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman), a young 20-something ballerina, is dancing the prologue to Swan Lake. Swan Lake is a ballet in which a princess is turned into the White Swan and can only be turned back if a man swears eternal fidelity to her. In the ballet, she is betrayed by the Black Swan, the evil magician’s daughter whom the magician has transformed to look exactly like the princess in order to trick the prince who has fallen in love with her. In the end, the princess commits suicide because the Prince’s infidelity has doomed her to remain a swan forever. As Nina dances in the role of the Princess, the magician appears and places the curse on the Princess. Nina then wakes up in her apartment, the dance sequence having been a dream. She begins her daily ballet stretching; telling her mother about her dream as her mother unintentionally ignores her. Nina mentions that the director, Thomas Leroy (pronounced Tomah, as in French), of her ballet company has promised to feature her more this season and her mother agrees that she’s been there long enough.

Nina goes to the ballet studio and learns that Beth (Winona Ryder), the lead principal dancer, is being put out to pasture due to her age. As a result, Thomas (Vincent Cassel) is looking for a new face to be the lead. Thomas announces to the company that the first performance of the season will be a reworking of Swan Lake. He casually walks among the dancers as they’re practicing, tapping several girls on the shoulder as he talks. He then tells those he tapped to attend their regular rehearsals; those he didn’t tap are to meet with him later in the principal studio.

Later, in the principle studio, auditions are being held to find Beth’s replacement as the Swan Princess. Nina dances the White Swan impeccably, and then Thomas tells Nina to dance as the Black Swan. As Nina begins the dance her audition is interrupted by the late arrival of new dancer, Lily (Mila Kunis). Already fearing imperfection and disappointing Thomas, she loses focus as Lily noisily closes the door and stops. Despite her flawless performance as the White Swan, Thomas is not impressed by Nina’s performance, stating she failed to capture the sensuality of the Black Swan. Nina goes home to her mother and bursts into tears and practices until she cracks her big toe nail. Later, when her mother tucks her in, Nina tells her she can go to Thomas the next day and tell him she finished the Black Swan dance, but her mother tells her there is no need to lie and Nina nods in defeated agreement.

The next day, Nina visits Thomas in his office and tells him she finished the Black Swan dance at home and wants the role. He tells her that he’s decided to give it to another dancer, Veronica (Ksenia Soto). She says ‘okay’ and begins to leave but he slams the door and asks her why she’s giving up. He grabs her face and kisses her passionately. Angered by this unwanted advance, Nina bites him on the lip and runs out of his office which both shocks and impresses Thomas.

Nina sees Beth having an emotional meltdown in her private dressing room, throwing things and breaking the full length mirror. After Beth leaves, Nina decides to take a peek inside. She sits down in Beth’s chair and stares at herself in a mirror surrounded by globe lights. She begins to go through Beth’s things and stashes several items in her pocket, specifically perfume, diamond earrings, a nail file and tube of lipstick. She sneaks out of Beth’s dressing room just as the girls begin running down the hall to find out who has been chosen as the new Swan Queen. Feeling certain she didn’t get the role, Nina congratulates Veronica for getting it. The girl runs to see the posting but walks back to Nina and berates her for the cruel joke before walking off down the hall. Stunned and confused, Nina goes to look at the posting. As she approaches, several girls gather around her shouting congratulations at her. Overjoyed, and nauseous, she runs to the bathroom where she calls her mother from one of the stalls and tells her that she won the part. When she leaves the stall she sees the word “WHORE” written on the mirror in red lipstick and frantically struggles to wipe it off. When Nina gets home, her mother has ordered her a beautiful pink and white frosted cake — strawberries and cream, their favorite from the local bakery — that she presents to Nina when she walks in the door to celebrate Nina aquiring the role in the ballet. Her mother starts to cut her a slice but Nina refuses, telling her she can’t eat something like that and when her mother gives her a look, Nina continues, saying that her stomach is still in knots. Becoming angry, her mother begins to throw the cake out which leaves Nina feeling guilty. She accepts a slice and takes a small bite.

Over the next several days, the stress of the role and her inability to perform get to Nina. She begins seeing a darker version of herself in random passers-by.

Thomas holds a gala to officially announce Beth’s “retirement” and Nina’s rise as the Swan Queen. Nina goes to the bathroom and on her way out encounters Lily coming in. In front of Nina, Lily takes off her panties and puts them in her purse, then sits down on vanity. She congratulates Nina on her role, but Nina is uncomfortable and attempts to excuse herself. Lily playfully asks her to stay, but Nina leaves.

As Nina and Thomas leave the party, Thomas is briefly called back inside. Intoxicated, with her eyes dripping with black mascara from crying, Beth confronts Nina and asks her if she had to suck Thomas’ cock to get the role. Nina is offended, and tells Beth that not everyone has to. Beth continues to rant until Thomas appears and diffuses the situation, soothing Beth by calling her “My little princess.” Beth shouts after them as Thomas leads Nina out. He takes Nina back to his place. When they sit on the couch, he brusquely asks her if she she’s a virgin. She looks away and smiles uncomfortably. He asks if she likes making love and when she won’t answer, he gives her a homework assignment: she must touch herself and find her sexuality so that she may better inhabit the role.

The next day the company is practicing and a girl runs in, crying hysterically. She runs to the teacher who comforts her and asks what happened. She says Beth is in the hospital after an accident when she got hit by a passing car. Later, Nina is sitting at the edge of a fountain with Thomas and he tells her he believes that Beth threw herself into oncoming traffic. She visits Beth in the hospital where she finds her room filled with beautiful flowers and cards wishing her a quick recovery. As Beth lays comatose in the bed, Nina lifts up the sheet draped over Beth and sees metal bars sticking out of her leg and a huge, infected gash on her calf. Horrified, she quickly turns to leave and bumps into Beth’s nurse (Leslie Lyles) who asks what she is doing there.

Later, when Nina’s mother is helping her dress for bed she sees scratches on Nina’s back, and asks what they are from. Nina says they’re nothing but a rash and her mother becomes angry and hints that Nina hasn’t scratched herself like this since she was younger, and she thought Nina was over this. Nina tries to brush her off but her mother grabs her hand and takes her to the bathroom to cut her fingernails with scissors. She accidentally cuts Nina’s finger and apologizes profusely but continues in her mission to trim Nina’s nails.

Nina wakes up the next morning and begins touching herself as Thomas asked. When she becomes aroused, she goes faster and turns over. As she gets closer, she turns her head to the left and is startled to realize her mother is asleep in the chair next to her bed. She goes to practice and still cannot get the passion of the Black Swan into her performance. Suddenly the lights go out and Thomas calls for someone to turn them back on, that there are still people rehearsing. The lights come back on, but a clearly disappointed Thomas sends the other dancers home and steps in to dance as Nina’s partner. As they dance together, he slowly moves his hands under her thighs and begins touching her. After a deep kiss, he lets go of her and walks away, calling over his shoulder that he just seduced her and that it should be her doing the seducing with her dancing. Nina calls after, pleading, but he does not turn back.

Nina, feeling defeated in her attempt to be perfect, sits alone and cries in the studio. Lily arrives, sees Nina crying, and lights a cigarette as she walks up. Lily chats casually, implying that Thomas has a tendency of sleeping with the troupe and Nina tries to defend him. Lily realizes that Nina has a crush on Thomas and jokes about it. Infuriated by such a thought, Nina gets upset and leaves.

The next day, Thomas angrily asks Nina if she needs time off after a comment from Lily that he should cut Nina some slack. He says she has no business whining and she fervently defends herself, saying she wasn’t. Angered, Nina tracks Lily down in the troupe dressing room where she is greeted with banter from the other dancers who say that “the queen” is gracing them with her presence on their turf. Lily tells them to shut up and gets up to talk to Nina. Nina berates Lily for telling Thomas that she’d been crying. Lily looks abashed and says she was just trying to help. Nina tells her she does need the help and Lily says okay, fine, and walks away in astonished irritation.

That night, Nina and her mother are working on Nina’s toe shoes. Erica (Nina’s mother) is making small talk that sounds condescending to Nina so she starts answering with slight hostility without looking up at Erica. Her mother asks Nina if she’s been scratching and Nina unintentionally pauses just long enough for Erica to not believe Nina when she says ‘no’. Erica tells her to take off her shirt and Nina refuses so Erica stands over Nina and demands it but Nina says no in a biting tone. Before Erica can get her confirmation there is a knock at the door. She answers the door and talks quickly to someone before closing it again. Nina asks who it was but Erica says it was no one, so Nina demands to know again and when Erica still won’t tell her she runs to the door and opens it. She sees Lily waiting for the elevator. Nina walks out into the hallway and asks Lily how she knew where she lived and Lily responds with sarcasm. But Nina looks angry so Lily laughingly says she asked Thomas’ secretary. Erica opens the door and says Nina needs to come in and rest. Nina tells her to shut the door, which Erica slams. Lily invites her out and Nina says she can’t, but after Erica opens the door and tells her once more and tells Nina to come back inside and also asks Lily to leave, Nina pushes the door open to grab her stuff and leaves with Lily, despite her mother’s protests shouted down the hall that it’s the night before a long day of work and she should stay home.

Nina and Lily go out but Nina is so uptight that Lily offers her a pill to relax, saying it would only last a few hours. Nina turns it down. She goes to the bathroom and returns to see Lily slip the content of the pill into a drink, as she flirts with two guys she is calling Tom (Toby Hemingway) and “Jerry” though his real name is Andrew (Sebastian Stam). Nina is reassured by Lily that the pills will only last a few hours and downs her glass. The two have a crazy, drugged night of clubbing with two guys. When Nina is next lucid, she finds herself hooking up with a man in a bathroom. She leaves to find a cab and Lily runs to catch up with her. They take the taxi back to Nina’s apartment and Lily comes onto Nina and begins touching Nina’s leg until Nina stops her and just holds Lily’s hand. When they get back to the apartment, Nina’s mother is waiting for them and asks Nina what she was doing out late. Nina is somewhat belligerent but finally says, “I was with two guys named Tom and Jerry and I fucked them both,” and laughs. Nina’s mother is horrified and slaps her across the face. Nina grabs Lily and runs into her room, barricading the door with a piece of metal pipe, yelling at her mother to leave her alone. She turns around and looks at Lily, then walks to her and starts passionately kissing her. They move to the bed where Lily undresses Nina and then rips her panties off. Lily begins to orally pleasure Nina and she sees Lily morph into herself and then back to Lily, which scares her. Lily doesn’t stop and the two continue to have sex before Lily says, “innocent girl” before morphing back into dark Nina, who raises a pillow to smother her.

Nina wakes up the next morning with a hangover-like headache to find Lily gone and realizes she is late for rehearsal. As her mother sits quietly in the living room, Nina yells at her and asks why she didn’t wake her up. Erica says this role is destroying her and as Nina rushes out the door she tells Erica that she is moving out.

When Nina arrives at the ballet studio, she finds Lily in her costume, practicing her routine with the rest of the troupe. When Lily walks up to Nina, she says she was only filling in because Thomas had asked her to. Nina then questions Lily about why she left her house the night before, and Lily claims she went home to her place with Tom where they spent the night, and that last time she saw Nina was at the club. When Nina brings up what happened in her bedroom, Lily is flattered that Nina had a wet dream about her. She playfully asks Nina if she was any good but Nina gets embarrassed and leaves, looking uncomfortable and frustrated, wondering if her lovemaking with Lily had really happened or not.

A little later, Nina is being fitted for her Swan costumes. When she is done, Lily walks in and says Thomas told her to come down. Nina is confused and asks why and Lily says she is Nina’s alternate. Enraged and afraid, Nina finds Thomas and begs him not to make Lily the alternate, convinced that Lily is trying to steal the role from her. Thomas tells her that there is always an alternate. As Nina begins to cry, Thomas sooths her before telling her she is being paranoid. He tells her that the only person trying to sabotage Nina is “Nina”.

That night, Nina is practicing when the piano player suddenly stops playing and gets up to leave, telling Nina he has a life. He tells her not to practice too long and leaves her alone in the studio. As she begins dancing again the lights shut off just as they had when she had been practicing with Thomas. She calls out for someone to turn the lights back on, and sees a cloaked figure darting around in the shadows (the Sorcerer from the dream). She hears laughter and follows the noise to find Thomas having sex with Lily on a work table behind a curtain. Lily smiles at Thomas and laughs. This brings tears to Nina’s eyes and she runs back to her dressing room where she grabs the items she took from Beth when the room was still hers. In a fit of hysteria, Nina goes to the hospital to find Beth sitting motionless in a wheelchair, now a mere shadow of the woman she used to be. Nina quietly places a note and the items she stole on the table next to Beth, when Beth suddenly stirs and grabs Nina’s arm. Beth is angry and asks what Nina is doing, then she looks down and sees the items on the table. She asks Nina in an amused but irritated voice why she stole from her. Nina says she just wanted to be perfect like Beth. As Beth looks at the items, she says she’s nothing and then notices the nail file. She continues to say she’s nothing as she suddenly stabs herself in the face with the file repeatedly. Nina finally grabs the nail file from Beth’s hand and runs fearfully from the room to the elevator. As she gets in the elevator, she drops the bloody nail file. Nina returns home, dashing hysterically into the kitchen to wash her hands which are covered in Beth’s blood. She then calls down the hall for her mother, walking toward her mother’s art studio. As she peers in, she imagines her mother’s paintings moving and talking to her. She runs in and starts tearing everything down until her mother walks in and, astonished, asks what she is doing. Nina runs past her mother to her bedroom, with Erica close behind. As she tries to reach Nina, Nina slams the door on her hand, breaking it. Nina barricades herself inside with the pipe again. As Nina stands there, her skin begins to shift and take on a bird like texture, her eyes start to turn red, and her knee joints violently invert to the same shape as a bird. The hallucination disorients Nina and she falls and hits her head on a bed post which knocks her out.

Nina wakes up the next day as in a normal day, but with socks rubber-banded on her hands and a headache. She looks to her mother, who is sitting next to the bed with a bandage on her hand. Nina asks her mother why her hands are covered and Erica says it is to prevent scratching, that she’d been doing it all night. Nina suddenly realizes it must be late and says she needs to get to the ballet company because its opening day. Her mother says she called and let them know Nina wasn’t feeling well and wouldn’t be able to perform that night. Nina is furious and gets out of bed. She goes for the door but her mother has locked the door and removed the door knob. Nina turns around and yells at her mother to let her out. Erica tells her she is not well and the role has taken her over. Nina grabs her mother’s broken hand and pulls her out of the chair. As her mother cries and holds her injured hand, Nina takes the door knob out from under the cushion and walks toward the door. Her mother reaches out for her and asks what happened to her sweet girl, and Nina says in a harsh, evil tone, “she’s gone”, and walks out of the room.

Nina arrives at the ballet and ignores whispers from the troupe as she passes them (with the camera following her from behind). She finds Lily in costume talking to Thomas in the hall, prepared to take the stage as the lead. Nina confidently tells Thomas that she is ready to perform and goes to sit down in her dressing room, with Lily asking what’s going on behind her. Thomas follows her into the room and says that he’s already told Lily shell be performing. Nina says if she doesn’t take the stage then the company will be marred with controversy, after Beth’s incident. Thomas looks slightly amused and impressed at her audacity and tells her to get ready.

Nina goes on and is just as timid and rigid in her performance as she was during rehearsals. During a lift, she sees Lily flirting with one of the male dancers off stage and loses her concentration which causes the lead male to drop her center stage. Thomas is enraged and asks what the hell that was all about. Nina’s inner diva comes out and she blames it on the dance partner that dropped her but Thomas walks away from her. When she enters her dressing room, Lily is sitting at her dressing table putting on makeup. She taunts Nina and they begin to fight. Lily morphs into Nina off and on as Nina struggles against her. Nina pushes Lily into the same full-length mirror Beth destroyed and it shatters. As the fight escalates further, Nina grabs a piece of the mirror and stabs Lily. Unsure of what to do, Nina hides the bleeding body in her bathroom and then puts on the Black Swan’s makeup. She takes the stage and begins to dance with passionate abandon. As she dances with everything Thomas has been asking for, she begins to physically transform into a large Black Swan on stage. She dances the part better than ever and the crowd is amazed, giving her a standing ovation as the piece ends.

Nina runs off stage toward Thomas and, in front of everyone, kisses him passionately after finally seducing him with her movements. He smiles and tells her to go back out for a second bow. After leaving the stage again, Nina goes into her dressing room to change for the next act and realizes the blood is starting to pour out from under the bathroom door. Nina places a towel over the growing pool of blood and then hears a knock at the door. When she opens the door Lily is standing there. She apologizes for how things turned out between them and congratulates Nina on her amazing performance as the Black Swan. Nina is shocked as Lily smiles and walks away. Nina turns around and removes the towel to find there is no blood. She turns to look at the broken mirror pieces on the floor then suddenly moves her hand to her abdomen. She’s bleeding, and she reaches into the wound and pulls out the broken shard of glass. (In her unhinged and delusional mind, Nina had stabbed herself before the Black Swan dance, imagining it was Lily). Despite her wound, she dresses for her final act as the White Swan. Nina dances the second act beautifully, which entrances the audience so that they don’t see the small stain of blood growing in the mid-section of her white costume.

In the final scene of the last act, the White Swan goes to the top of a large structure to commit suicide. Nina does this with grace, looks down at the suitors below, and then turns and falls in slow motion onto the mattress below as her mother sits in the audience, smiling and crying. When the curtain falls, Thomas is overjoyed and newly infatuated with Nina. He is smiling in adoration as he kneels to congratulate her, a crowd of ballerinas gathering around the star. Nina doesn’t speak, but instead just smiles and listens to the praise. Lily suddenly gasps – the first to notice the immense blood stain forming on Nina’s costume. Someone calls for help, and Thomas frantically asks her, “What did you do?!” Nina calmly and quietly utters, “I was perfect”. The crowd continues to roar with applause as Nina dies and the screen slowly fades to white….

Comments:

This movie is almost two agonizing hours long listening to Natalie Portman’s high pitched childish voice in an anorexic body. As she goes increasingly deranged, it becomes even more tiresome. How a depressing movie about a child unable to cope with the real world could be nominated for some many Oscars is beyond me. How they ever can consider any part Portman has played as being good acting is beyond me. It reeks of Carrie’s Mother from the 60s movie of the same name with the delusional fantasies of Frailty and Inception. I am sure there is supposed to be some underlying  theme and one can clearly see the distinction between perfection of technique versus “getting into the part” or really delivering passion to what one is doing. The believability of character, often is better than the technically perfect performace of the motions. One really does see this in theater, music, and dance – as well as real life. Maybe it was also supposed to portray the duality of human nature as well – that we all have a dark side and non-dark side that they are in continual battle with each other ….. and the winner is ……

Wait til this comes to a movie channel near you or better yet network TV. Don’t pay for the movie and certainly don’t buy the DVD.

Rating: -3 out of 5 Stars.

In 2003, Harvard University student Mark Zuckerberg has the idea to create a website to rate the attractiveness of female Harvard undergraduates after his girlfriend Erica Albright breaks up with him. Mark hacks into the databases of various residence halls, downloads pictures and names of female students and, using an algorithm for ranking chess players supplied by his best friend Eduardo Saverin (essentially the Elo rating system, written on a window pane recalling a scene of A beautiful mind), he creates in a few hours a website called “FaceMash.com”, where male students can iteratively choose which of two girls presented at a time is more attractive.

Mark is punished with six months of academic probation after the traffic to the site brings down parts of Harvard’s network, and becomes vilified among most of Harvard’s female community. However, the popularity of “FaceMash” and the fact that he created it in one night, while drunk, brings him to the attention of Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss, identical twins and members of Harvard’s rowing team, and their business partner Divya Narendra. As a result, he gains a job working for the Winklevoss twins as the programmer of their website, Harvard Connection.

Soon afterwards, Mark approaches his friend Eduardo and tells him of his idea for what he calls “Thefacebook”, an online social networking website exclusive to Harvard University students. He explains this would let people share personal and social information securely. Eduardo agrees to help Mark, providing a thousand dollars to help start the site. Once complete, they distribute the link to Eduardo’s connections at the Phoenix S-K final club, and it quickly becomes popular throughout the student body. When they learn of Thefacebook, the Winklevoss twins and Narendar believe that Zuckerberg stole their idea while simultaneously stalling on their website; Cameron and Divya want to sue Mark for intellectual property theft, but Tyler convinces them they can settle the matter as “Harvard gentlemen” without resorting to the courts.

At a lecture by Bill Gates, fellow Harvard University student Christy Lee introduces herself and her friend Alice to Eduardo and Mark. She asks that the boys “Facebook us”, which impresses both of them. The girls invite them to a bar, where they have sex in the toilet. Mark later runs into his ex-girlfriend, who is not aware of The Facebook’s existence because she is not a Harvard University student. Stung by this, Mark decides to expand the site to more schools. Christy, Mark, and Eduardo later return to Mark’s room where they outline the structure of the company and their plan for moving forward.

As The Facebook grows in popularity, they expand to other schools in the Northeastern United States, while the Winklevoss twins and Narendra become angrier at seeing “their idea” advance without them. Tyler refuses to sue them, instead accusing Mark of violating the Harvard student Code of Conduct. Through their father’s connections they arrange a meeting with Harvard President Larry Summers, who is dismissive and sees no potential value in either a disciplinary action or in Thefacebook website itself.

Through Christy Lee, now Eduardo’s girlfriend, Eduardo and Mark arrange a meeting with Napster co-founder Sean Parker. When Christy, Mark and Eduardo meet Parker, Eduardo becomes skeptical of Parker, noting his problematic personal and professional history. Mark, however, is impressed with Parker since he presented a similar vision of Facebook. Although no deals are reached, Parker suggests that they drop “The” from Thefacebook to make it simply “Facebook”.

Mark moves the company’s base of operation to Palo Alto, at Parker’s suggestion, while Eduardo remains in New York for seeking advertising support, When Eduardo visits from New York, he is angered to find that Parker is living at the house and making business decisions for Facebook. After an argument with Mark, Eduardo freezes the company’s bank account and returns to New York. Upon returning, Christy and Eduardo argue about his Facebook profile, which still lists him as “single”. Christy accuses Eduardo of cheating on her and sets fire to a scarf he gave to her as a gift. While Eduardo extinguishes the fire, Mark reveals on the phone that they have secured money from an angel investor through Parker’s contacts. As a result of Christy’s jealousy, Eduardo ends his relationship with her.

Meanwhile in England, while competing in the Henley Royal Regatta, the Winklevoss twins become outraged that Facebook has expanded to a number of universities there and decide to sue. Eduardo has also discovered the deal he signed with Parker’s investors allows them to dilute his share of the company from a third to less than one tenth of one percent, while maintaining the ownership percentage of all other parties. He confronts his erstwhile friend Mark and announces his intention to sue him. Later that night, Parker, along with a number of Facebook interns, is arrested for possession of cocaine during a party thrown on the occasion of Facebook’s 1 millionth member.

The framing device throughout the film shows Mark testifying in depositions in two lawsuits: one filed by the Winklevoss twins, and the other filed by Eduardo. In the final scene, a junior lawyer for the defense informs Mark they will be settling with Eduardo, since the sordid details of Facebook’s founding and Mark’s personality will make a jury highly unsympathetic. The film ends with Mark sending a friend request to his former girlfriend Erica on Facebook, and refreshing the page every few seconds waiting for a response.

The movie is  a montage of flashbacks and flash forwards. Jessie Eisenberg talks too fast and in th move has a much more extroverted sense of communication than has been displayed by the real Mark Zukerberg on the various TV interviews since the release of the video.

I certainly hope in real life he isn’t the ADHD idiot savant depicted in the movie. Does he deserve the worth of the company or should it go to the individual that actually came up with the algorithm. Nonetheless, Facebook is an entity that will go down in history as the one greatest factor in the de-intellectualization of America. Personally, it is useless waste of time and the moronic postings of the majority of users are nothing more than useless drivel.

Although I am not particularly a fan of Jesse Eisenberg as an actor, the story is worth a look. Wait for the $1 movie or catch it on your premium cable movie channels. It is certainly not worthy of an Oscar nod in any category.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars.

A thick, yellow moon slowly transforms into the title “New Moon.”

We hear Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart)’s voice, quoting Friar Lawrence from “Romeo and Juliet”: “These violent delights have violent ends..” and, although we don’t know it yet, she is having a nightmare. She fights through a crowd of group of red cloaked strangers in the noon-day sun. She looks up to see a clock tower and the big hand that moves to 12:00. Suddenly she emerges from the woods into a glade of flowers, looking across to her grandmother (Christina Jastrzembska). Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) comes up behind Bella. She tries to warn him away, “Don’t. She’ll see you.” He keeps approaching, however. She seems to welcome his decision to reveal himself and, as she takes his hand says, “Okay.” They approach Bella’s Grandma and Bella says, “Gran, I’d like you to meet Edward,” but the words come out of the older woman, as well as Bella. She realizes it is her, older, wrinkled, and her Grandma is really her reflection, standing next to an eternally youthful Edward. He leans over and kisses her wrinkled forehead.

Charlie (Billy Burke), Bella’s father, wakes her up from the nightmare. She’s fallen asleep reading “Romeo and Juliet.”

He wishes Bella a happy birthday. He gives her two gifts, a digital camera from him, and a scrapbook from her mother. She protests weakly as she’d thought they’d agreed that she wasn’t going to get any presents. He jokes that she is obsessed with aging and points out a grey hair on her head. Bella scurries to the mirror, relieved that he was kidding.

As Bella drives to school in her old brick red, beat-up Chevrolet truck (license plate 24G-7HI) the radio relays that three hikers are missing, presumed dead. When she arrives at the parking lot she talks to her friends, Jessica, Mike, Angela, and Eric, all of who seem to know nothing of her birthday. She takes a picture of them as Edward drives up in the parking lot in a brand-new, black Volvo 2010 X60 (license plate 57F-6D3). The rest of the group depart when he arrives. Edward wishes her a happy birthday. Bella tells him shes not very happy about it. She’s eighteen now, which is a year older than him. Edward discounts her worry. After all, hes 109. They kiss passionately but he breaks away, saying that they need to go to class. He also stops her because Jacob wants to see her, even though he hasn’t arrived yet.

When he does Edward backs away. Bella marvels at the changes that have come over Jacob (Taylor Lautner), teasing him about taking anabolic steroids. He too gives Bella a gift. It’s a dreamcatcher, a woven band meant to keep bad dreams away. “That’s kinda perfect,” says Bella, reflecting on her nightmare. Jacob departs.

Edward asks Bella why Jacob Black can give her gifts but he cannot. She tells him the reason is that she cannot give him back anything.

In the hallway of the school the rest of the school-age Cullen clan arrive. Though Alice Cullen (Ashley Greene) is glad to see her, Jasper Cullen (Jackson Rathbone) remains aloof, staring at her from the other side of the hallway. Alice gives her a present which, using her vampire ability of augury, tells Bella she will love. She also invites Bella to a birthday party they’re going to have for her that night, which starts at 7:00. Bella agrees but then realizes that Jasper has altered her mood to make her happily agree and gently chides him for it.

In class Edward and Bella are talking during the movie that is being shown. Edward says how doesn’t like Romeo because he is so quick to act after he sees Juliet dead, but he is jealous of him for one reason. Bella believes this to be of Juliet, but he says it is of the ease of suicide humans have, since it is almost impossible for vampires. He later tells Bell that he began to think along these lines when he thought Bella might not have survived the attack by James a few months before. He says he would have gone and provoked the Volturi. Bella is horrified by this thought and says he should never say it again. Edwards is then questioned by their teacher, Mr. Berty, who believes he’s not been paying attention to the BBC version of “Romeo and Juliet” they’ve been watching. Edward responds by quoting Romeo’s final soliloquy from the play.

“O, here Will I set up my everlasting rest, And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars From this world-wearied flesh. Eyes, look your last! Arms, take your last embrace! and, lips, O you The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss”

This silences their teacher.

Bella goes to the Cullens’ house for a birthday party. Before the proceedings Edward and Bella stand before a painting of the Volturi, which includes Edward’s vampiric father Carlisle Cullen (Peter Facinelli). The painting comes to life, showing an earlier time, as Edward explains that Carlisle lived with them for a few decades and that the Volturi are the closest things the vampire race has to royalty. They have no respect for human life but they do respect the arts, the sciences and, above all, the law. The Volturi have simple rules: to not make spectacles of themselves, to not kill conspicuously. The penalty for disobedience is death. During this exposition the Volturi tableau shows Aro (Michael Sheen), the supposed leader, Marcus (Christopher Heyerdahl) who has long-flowing black hair, and Caius (Jamie Campbell Bower), who has long-flowing white hair, taking a transgressor, laying their hands upon him, and tearing him apart as Carlisle turns away, disturbed.

Edward has broken the law by telling Bella, a human, too much. He also predicts that Victoria will come for him some day. Bella tells Edward that they would never have to think about this if he would turn her into a vampire. He says firmly that won’t ever happen.

All are gathered in the main hall. Rosalie Cullen (Nikki Reed) gives her a necklace, which she claims was all Alice’s idea. Then Emmett (Kellan Lutz) gives her an empty box, but tells her that he has already installed a new sound system in her beat-up truck (“Don’t hate the truck,” jokes Bella) . As she opens another gift from Carlisle and Esme, Bella gets a paper cut and a drop of her blood lands on the carpet. Jasper immediately lunges for her, unable to resist the temptation of her blood. Edward protectively throws Bella back against a glass table and repels Jasper, throwing him backward into a piano. Jasper comes on, mad for her blood, but he’s stopped by Edward, Carlisle and Emmett. Bella’s right arm is seriously cut by the shards. Even Alice seems tempted by the sight and smell of her blood and apologetically has to excuse herself. Carlisle also has to order Edward out, who stands transfixed by the bleeding sight of Bella, several feet away, with the excuse that only he can talk to Jasper, who must now be ashamed of his actions.

Carlisle takes her to get stitches in his office. Bella asks him how he can resist her. “Practice,” he tells her. She asks him why he does it, and he says he wants to help people, even if he is “damned regardless.” She does not understand what he means. “Like hell?” she presses, insisting this is impossible. Carlisle tells her of the belief that vampires do not have souls. Bella realizes that is why Edward will not change her. “Imagine the reverse,” Carlisle says, “if you could take away his soul.” He burns her blood in a bowl.

Afterward, Edward drives home with her in her truck. He talks about the welfare of Bella’s soul. Bella argues that he can’t always protect her. She will get ill, have an accident, and get old. If he turns her, none of this will happen. “That’s not a solution,” Edward counters, “It’s a tragedy.” Bella says she doesn’t care about her soul. But its still Bella’s birthday and she requests one last thing, that Edward kiss her. They do and Edward again has to restrain himself. They exchange vows of love.

That evening Bella prints out a photo of her and Edward. She folds the photo in half, leaving Edward’s side facing up.

The next day the Cullens are not at school. Edward comes over to Bella’s house after school before she arrives. He sees the bent photo. Bella arrives and Edward intercepts her before she gets to the house. He tells her they have to talk. After a walk some ways away on a trail in the forest, he stops and tells her that they are leaving Forks. “Carlisle is supposed to be ten years older than he looks and people are starting to notice.” Bella says that she’ll have to prepare some excuse for Charlie but when she notices that Edward isn’t picking up on the suggestion realizes he isn’t talking about taking her with them. “You don’t belong in my world,” says Edward. “I belong with you,” she retorts. “I don’t want you to come,” he continues. “If this is about my soul, take it,” she protests, “I don’t want it without you.” He gets more pointed. He can’t stay with her anymore, stating, “You’re not good for me.” He asks her to promise that she will not do anything reckless, for Charlie’s sake, and in return he promises her she will never see him again. He kisses her on her forehead and disappears. Bella runs after him and as it gets dark. Lost deep in the woods she trips and drops to the forest floor, depleted and deserted. She falls asleep sobbing. An enormous wolf watches her from a nearby rise.

Back at the Swans house (number 184) that same night, a search party is starting to form, looking for Bella. When it’s mentioned that the Cullens have left town, Charlie’s friend Harry (Graham Greene) says, Good riddance. From the woods at the edge of the house a shirtless Sam Uley (Chaske Spencer) carries Bella in his arms. He hands her over to Charlie. Harry nods to Sam in some sort of recognition.

Safe now but still depressed and unable to see or contact Edward, Bella becomes despondent for many months. She writes e-mails to Alice (at acullen@) though they all appear to be undeliverable. She screams at night, waking Charlie. Her wailing is so uncontrollable that Charlie confronts her. She is to go to Jackson because she needs a new setting. He suggests that she leave Forks. Finally, to appease her father and to stay in Washington she tells him she’s arranged to go shopping with Jessica (Anna Kendrick). Charlie finds this unlikely but is pleased that she’s doing something social.

Jessica and Bella leave a zombie film called “The Dead Come Back” (showing at 7:00 and 9:45) Bella spies a bunch of bikers in front of a bar called One-Eyed Pete’s. She recognizes them as the same gang that Edward beat up when they menaced Bella during their pre-courtship. Seeing them she also recalls Edward’s admonition not to do anything reckless and she even sees a ghostly visage of him. “Keep walking,” he says, “this is dangerous.” He then disappears. Excited, and wanting to have another visitation, she assumes that Edward will appear before her only if she’s doing something that will endanger her. She comes up to one of the seedier bikers and asks for a ride. He lets her get on and speeds down the street. Again she sees the spectral Edward, warning her not to do what she’s doing. She arrives back in one piece, much to the horror and disgust of Jessica, who states that she’s either insane or suicidal and asks her if she’s now become an adrenaline junkie.

Bella continues to write e-mails to Alice. She describes her situation as having “a hole in my chest.”

Bella renews her friendship with Jacob. She brings him two dilapidated motorcycles, asking him to help her refurbish them. Though she warns him that they’re heavy, Jacob easily lifts them from the bed of her truck. ‘You’re like, buff,’ she says, incredulous. ‘You’re like 16.” “What are you?, he retorts, “Like 40?”

As they strip and reassemble the bikes the easy friendship between Bella and Jacob grows more substantial. She smiles. He introduces her to “my two boys” Quill and Embry. They state that Jacob has been calling Bella his girlfriend. Jacob corrects them. He was calling her a girl who was a friend. Jacob and Quill wrestle.

Bella is still plagued by bad dreams, however.

As Bella drives Jacob they see some of the Quileute tribe, Sam, Paul, Embry and Jared, cliff diving. Jacob is clearly upset by them. He refers to them as “Sam and his cult,” and “Sam and his disciples.” Jake says that Embry had formerly said they were like “hall monitors on steroids” but now was one of them. “Sam keeps giving me this look, like he’s waiting for me,” Jacob says.

Once the bikes are operational Bella and Jake takes them out. Bella drives recklessly, trying to conjure up Edward’s spirit again. As she speeds along his spectral form passes by her on the road like mile markers. But she loses control of the bike. She wrecks the bike and Jacob drives his bike down the road to her accident. Bella wants to go again but she is bleeding from the head. She apologizes but then realizes that she doesn’t need to around Jake. He pulls off his shirt and dabs her head. “You’re sorta beautiful,” she says.

In the cafeteria at school Bella rejoins her old group of friends. Angela (Christian Serratos) says she saw a large wolf and the group talks about how five hikers have now been killed. Mike asks her if she would like to go to a movie. He suggests, “Love Spelled Backward Is Love.” Wanting nothing to do with romance Bella suggests “Face Punch.” Bella invites the rest of the group to go along. Everyone agrees to go to “Face Punch.”

At the theater Mike and Jacob wait outside. Jacob acts territorial as if he wants to frighten Mike away, telling him hears that “Face Punch” “sucks.” Bella arrives and explains that’s it’s just the three of them as Jessica has bailed and Angela was home with the stomach flu. They go into the movie. The films tagline is “Let’s Do This!”

As they watch the movie they hear the film’s tagline (“Lets do this!”) spoken during what sounds like a Mexican standoff onscreen. Bella looks down at the armrests on either side of her. Both Jacob and Mike have their hands on the rests, turned upward, as if waiting for her to settle her hands on theirs. The violent conflict onscreen turns Mike’s stomach, who leaves to presumably get sick.

Outside, in the lobby (where posters announce other films coming up including “Parking” and “Gambling, Gods and LSD”) Jacob tries to hold Bella’s hand. She draws away. She’s obviously conflicted. “I’m not like a car you can fix up. I’m never gonna run right,” she says. “You’re about to ruin everything and I need you,” she tells him. Jacob says that he knows what’s standing between them is Edward. He continues, “I know what he did to you. I would never, ever, do that. I won’t ever hurt you. I promise.” She puts her head on his shoulder. Mike arrives, stating that he needs to go home, claiming he was feeling sick before the movie. His weakness rankles Jacob who threatens to put him in the hospital. Bella intervenes and discovers that Jacob is burning up. Jacob is taken aback by his own aggression, says he doesn’t know what’s happening to him, and leaves in a rush.

Bella is alternately haunted by dreams and visions of Edward and her longing for the physical presence of Jacob. She leaves numerous phone messages for him, asking why he won’t return any of her calls. She is told he has mononucleosis.

Charlie and Harry get ready to go fishing. Charlie is worried about leaving her alone and she, conversely, is worried about them going out into the woods with those hulking creatures. ‘Bears wont get the drop on me, Bella,’ Harry says, ‘My kung-fu is strong’.

Finally she finally decides to track down Jacob and confront him herself. When she arrives at Jacob’s house it’s raining. Jacob has indeed changed; he’s cut his hair quite short and has a tattoo. He seems ashamed of something and now, instead of trying to keep her around, warns Bella away. “I’m not good,” he says. “I used to be.” She asks if Sam and his cult have gotten to him. “Sam’s trying to help me,” counters Jacob. If she wants someone to blame for their predicament, he tells her, she can blame those filthy blood-suckers you love; the Cullens. She doesn’t know how Jacob knows that the Cullens are vampires but it unnerves her and she leaves.

Attempting to “find the place where I can see him again” Bella walks into a glade similar to the one from her early dream and discovers the vampire Laurent there. He too is looking for the Cullens and is equally surprised by her presence. He informs her he is doing the bidding of Victoria and wants to know where Edward is. Edward’s ghostly presence appears, “Lie,” he tells Bella. She begins to stutter out an excuse. “Lie better,” says Edward. Laurent asks why she has been left unprotected by the Cullens since he believed her to be some sort of pet. He also points out that she couldn’t be very important to them if they’ve left her so vulnerable. Bella starts to plead and bargain but Laurent has decided she’s too mouth-watering to not feast on. When Edward’s spirit tells her to threaten Laurent, he doesn’t believe her at all. He claims that he’s being merciful as Victoria had planned to kill her slowly, painfully and he will kill her quickly. Bella believes she’s going to die and simply says, ‘I love you, Edward,’ wanting these to be her last words. Before Laurent can strike, however, an enormous black wolf emerges. Several other wolves join him and they chase after Laurent. The last wolf to give chase fixes upon Bella and she is reflected in his canine eye. Up ahead Laurent thrusts the lead black wolf back and a vicious battle begins.

Back at the house Bella bursts in to inform Charlie and Harry that she has seen the creatures that have been killing people in the woods and that they’re wolves. Charlie tells Harry to get some guys from the reservation together so that they can go hunting, and Charlie decides he had better go down to the police station to file the report. Bella urges him to go so that he will get out of the house, since she thinks that Laurent will have gone and told Victoria of Bella’s situation, and that she will be coming soon to kill her.

That night, in her room, she hears someone throwing pebbles at her window. She looks down to see Jacob. He effortlessly climbs up to her second story room. He wants to explain to her whats going on with him but he can’t, he tells her. He begs her to remember the story he told her on the beach in LaPush. She recalls the story of the “cold ones,” the vampires but obviously can’t recollect the entire tale. She brushes his hair but he sees the scar from the bite from the vampire James. Bella suggests that they leave Forks. She would go, she says, if he would come with her. He hugs her but realizes that he is endangering her and leaps from her window.

The next day Bella arrives at Jacob’s house. When Billy Black (Gil Birmingham) opens the door he tells her that Jacob is not home. Not believing him, she bursts into Jacobs room to find him sleeping soundly, as though exhausted. Bella sees Sam, Paul, Embry, and Jared leaving the woods. She charges up to them, telling them to leave Jacob alone. They laugh mockingly at her, causing Bella to slap Paul. He immediately transforms into an enormous wolf, to the amusement of the other Quileutes. She runs from Paul just as she sees Jacob emerge from the house. She tells him to run but Jacob instead leaps from the porch and hurdles over Bella, himself changing to a wolf in mid-air. The two wolves engage in a fierce fight, destroying a small rowboat in the process. Sam tells Jared and Embry to take her to his fiancée, Emily’s house.

Before they enter Emily’s house Jared and Embry advise her not to stare at her. Why would I stare? asks Bella but she quickly understands. Emily Young (Tinsel Korey) is badly scarred on the right side of her face. Emily is kind and relaxed. So, you’re the vampire girl? she asks Bella. Bella asks back, So, youre the wolf girl? Guess so, Emily agrees. Emily starts to serve muffins to Jared and Embry as they openly discuss the werewolf world, including having to follow the orders of their alpha male, Sam. They all seem very nonchalant about what Bella’s just witnessed. Sam, Paul and Jacob then enter.. Paul apologizes for transforming in front of Bella earlier with a tossed-off Sorry as she and Jacob walk outside.

Bella and Jacob walk on the beach as Jacob explains what precipitated his change into being a werewolf. Bloodsucker moves into town, the fever sets in, he says. Bella says that she thinks what they do is monstrous and that he shouldn’t do it. Its not a lifestyle choice, Jacob protests as he wonders aloud if he’s just not the right kind of monster for her. He also disabuses her of the notion that they’re killing people. There’s only one thing they do kill and that’s vampires. She warns him of the strength and speed of vampires, not believing that anyone would be able to kill one. But Jacob says they took out the leech with the dreads, Laurent,. easy enough. They had almost caught Victoria too; they had chased her all the way to the Canadian border. They can’t figure out what she’s after though, and Bella informs him that Victoria is after her.

Back at the Swans, Bella warns him about Victoria’s incredible speed. Your lack of confidence is insulting, says Jacob. He leaves as he has a vampire to go kill.

At the same time a posse, which includes Harry and Charlie, search the woods for the menace while Bella decides she knows a way to reconnect with Edward after all.

Harry lags behind Charlie in the woods, eradicating any sign of the wolves. Behind him, in the trees, Victoria stalks him. She finally surprises Harry and clutches his throat, lifting him up off the ground in the process. Jacob, as a wolf, tackles Victoria, breaking her grip. She drops Harry, who then suffers a heart attack. Jacob and Victoria briefly square off but then she breaks for the ocean with the Quileute pack in pursuit. At the cliffs she dives into the ocean and Jacob pulls up short.

Bella, meanwhile, arrives the spot where they had watched Sam and the others cliff dive. Edward has already divined her actions. He appears beside her, again in spectral form. Don’t do this, he says. ‘You wanted me to be human,’ Bella counters; ‘Watch me.’

She leaps into the ocean, goes under briefly, then breaks the surface. She’s exhilarated initially until the surf comes in and pounds her back down. Through the murky water she sees a red-headed woman swimming towards her. Bella backs away, striking her head on the cliff wall. She begins to sink. Edward’s presence appears beside her but it dissipates when a hand reaches down and pulls her out.

It’s Jacob and he pulls Bella to shore, giving her CPR to resuscitate her. She comes back and he cradles her in his arms. Jacob informs her that Harry had a heart attack and has died.

Jake is driving Bella’s truck while she shivers on the passenger side. “108 degrees over here,” says Jacob, describing his ambient body temperature. She slides over and warms up beside him. They park. Jacob worries that what happened to Emily, Sam’s fiancée, could happen to her. “Sam lost it for a split second. What if I got mad at you?” His lack of control is consuming him. “I feel like I’m going to disappear,” he says. She responds that she will prevent that by telling him every day how special he is. They almost kiss and she nuzzles his neck. She doesn’t want it to go further and starts to get out of the truck. Jacob pulls the door closed before she can. He smells a vampire nearby.

Bella sees the Cullens’ car and heads towards the house. Jacob warns her she is about to cross a line that he can’t cross because of the treaty.

Once inside the house Alice appears. Shes amazed to find Bella alive; she saw her leap to her death. “I didn’t try to kill myself,” says Bella, “I was cliff jumping. It was…fun.” Alice tells her Edward has removed himself from them; he calls in only every few months. She also knows that Victoria has been around. She then crinkles her nose, “and what is that gawd-awful wet-dog smell?” As Alice is advising her that werewolves are not good company to keep Jacob appears. Alice gives them a moment alone.

Bella and Jacob quarrel again in the kitchen. They are angered and attracted by the other. Jacob kisses her lightly but is interrupted when the phone rings. Jacob answers it, “Swan residence,” and then, “He’s not here right now; he’s arranging a funeral.” On the other end is Edward. He’s in Rio and he assumes the funeral is for Bella. He crumples the phone in his hand. Alice bursts in as Edward now believes that Bella is dead. He’s going to the Volturi to end his life too. Bella is incensed when she realizes that it was Edward on the phone and that Jacob didn’t let her talk to him. She leaves with Alice.

Alice and Bella fly on Virgin America airlines to Italy. Alice is driving a fancy yellow sports car, alluding to the fact that she hot-wired it at the airport, as they speed toward Volterra, the headquarters of the Volturi. Meanwhile Edward has appeared before Caius, Marcus and Aro. They reject Edward’s petition to end his life as they find his particular gifts too valuable to destroy.

Alice gets a vision of the Volturi refusing him because his gifts are too precious to waste, and they offer him a spot on the Volturi gaurd. Alice also foresees that Edward will now expose himself to humans in broad daylight during the feast of Saint Marcos. They can drive no closer to the center of town, where the Voturi appear to be headquartered. Alice says that if she tries to save him he will read her thoughts and rush into the process even faster. Only Bella, whose thoughts Edward can’t read, can save him. Bella leaves the car to run on foot. She dashes through red cloaks and down dark alleys. Precisely at noon, exactly as in her dream, she gets to the town square. She sees Edward in a darkened entryway, disrobing, and about to step into the sunlight. She dashes across a fountain and hurls herself upon him. Only a little girl briefly has glimpsed the glittering man.

In the dark of the building Bella says that, since she has seen him again, she can’t let him go. Edward professes his love for her. He was going to end his life because he couldn’t live in a world where she didn’t exist. They kiss as the Volturi come to summon them. No laws have been broken, says Edward, now fearing for Bella. Nevertheless they are to appear. Alice breaks in, hoping to avert a confrontation. It appears they will get away until a young vampire woman named Jane (Dakota Fanning) appears. Both Alice and Edward appear afraid of her. They comply and go with the Volturi, taking an elevator down to an underground complex. They pass a receptionist who welcomes them. Bella asks if she’s human. She is, she is told, one who wishes to become a vampire.

Aro is genteel but menacing. Alec compliments his sister for being asked to fetch one and bringing back two and a half (referring to Bella as the half). Bella is obviously a problem. She knows too much about them. Aro takes Edward’s hand. Aro’s gift is that he can read peoples’ minds with a mere touch. He’s intrigued as Edward can’t read Bella’s mind. He sees Edward’s longing for her and is amazed at how much Bella’s blood appeals to him. Aro is impressed at Edward’s self-control which Edward says is achieved not without some difficulty.

Aro wants to see if Bella is impervious to his gifts. “Would you do me the honor?” he asks as he requests her hand. Bella complies. Aro tires to read her mind but can see nothing. He’s clearly frustrated by this. He then invites his sister, Jane, to try her gifts on the human. Edward tries to intervene and Jane wracks him with pain with but a single glance. Jane then tries to inflict pain on Bella. “This may hurt, just a little,” she says knowingly. She finds, to her consternation, that she can’t affect Bella either. Aro bursts into a laugh and wonders what to do with Bella. Marcus says Aro already knows what to do. Caius points out that Bella knows too much about the vampire world and is a liability. Aro sighs and agrees, and summons Felix, a hulking vampire of impressive size, to kill Bella. Edward fights Felix but he’s clearly no match. As Edward is put in the position of the heretic in the earlier tableau, about to be ripped apart by Aro and the rest of the Volturi, Bella screams for mercy and begs, “Kill me, not him.”

“How extraordinary,” says an astonished Aro, “You would give up your life for someone like us. A soulless monster.”

Bella stares defiantly at Aro and tells him, “You don’t know a thing about his soul,” Aro is both impressed and offended by her impertinence and moves in to slaughter her.

Alice interrupts him though when she successfully prophesies to him that Bella will become a vampire; she’s seen it in the future. Aro takes her hand and sees Alice’s vision of Bella and Edward running through a sylvan glen. Bella’s eyes are the amber color of a vampire, and her skin sparkles. “I’ll change her myself,” says Alice. “Your gifts will make an intriguing immortal,” says Aro to Bella. As Bella, Edward, and Alice leave, however, Caius warns them to follow through on their promises as the Volturi do not give second chances.

Walking out they pass a group of tourists being escorted down into the Volturi chamber; they’re obviously a meal for the vampires. One of the henchmen asks one of the guides to “save some for me.” Bella looks behind her to see small children among the group. They hear the chamber door open and the screams begin.

The screams wake her from her sleep. Shes back in her bedroom in Forks. Edward sits beside her on the bed. Edward says the only reason he’d left her before was to protect her and that it was the hardest thing he’d done in one hundred years. He’s interrupted by the entrance of Charlie.

Bella apologizes for disappearing for three days. Charlie says she’s grounded for the rest of her life, then leaves. Edward reappears and says that Charlie won’t forgive him easily for abandoning Bella earlier. Bella says he won’t be able to get rid of her easily once Alice changes her. Edward still rejects that notion, saying there are always ways to keep the Volturi from finding out. But Bella doesn’t dare risk this and makes Edward bring her to the Cullen house.

Back at the Cullen’s home Bella says “you all know what I want” and requests a vote. Alice says she already thinks of her as a sister and votes “yes.” Jasper votes “yes” saying that it will be nice to not always want to kill her. Rosalie says that being a vampire isn’t a life she would have chosen for herself and she wishes someone would have been able to vote no for her. She votes “no.” Emmett votes ‘hell yeah.’ Esme votes “yes” saying that she already thinks of Bella as family. Carlisle approaches. He’s clearly going to vote “yes.” Edward looks as if he’s been betrayed but Carlisle says Edward has chosen not to live without Bella, so Carlisle has no choice; he won’t lose his son.

Edward is driving Bella home. Bella suggests that they wait until after graduation, though she still wishes Edward would change her. They are stopped when they find Jacob in the middle of the road. Edward realizes he has to confront Jacob but wants to thank him first for protecting Bella when he didn’t.

Jacob agrees with Edward’s point but also wants to stress a key point in the treaty. If any of the Cullens bite a human (and here he’s referring to the proposed turning of Bella) the truce is over. Bella says it’s her choice. Jacob reminds her that, once she’s a vampire he will have to help his tribe hunt her down; he won’t have a choice.

Bella tells Jake that she loves him but begs him not to make her choose between him and Edward because, referring to Edward, it will be him. “It’s always been him.” Edward attempts to get Bella to walk away which angers Jacob. He advances and Edward pushes him back through the air. Jacob turns into a wolf before he hits the ground. They face each other, ready to fight. Bella reminds them that they can’t hurt each other without hurting her. Realizing he’s in a losing situation, Jacob bounds away.

The danger passed, Edward and Bella resume their talk of turning her. He asks her to wait. “Give me five years,” he asks. “That’s too long,” she says. “Three,” he bargains. She’s having none of it. He marvels at her stubbornness.

Then Edward makes a different proposal. “I have one condition,” he says, “if you want me to do it myself.”

“Marry me, Bella.”

She gasps.

The screen fades to black.

Well, at least this one moves faster than the first but of course we already had the plot developed. A lot more action in this one but there could still be a lot more gore and guts. Jake is actually the star character of this chapter. The biggest disappointment of the Twilight sagas, of course is Bella’s character. She is too moon-eyed in loved with Edward who is becoming more and more anorexic – what kind of diet is he on. In the last 15 or 20 minutes we are introduced to the Volturi who are deliciously evil. I can only hope they assume a bigger role later on. Why can’t Bella be more like Sookie in True Blood.

Rating: 3.7 out of 5 (because Bella is so dumb)