Destination Forks (2010)

“We all speak Twilight here.”

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I’m not much of a joiner. I held out for a really long time, plain refusing to read the Twilight series. Then I thought, “Come on, it is about vampires. What are you waiting for?”

So I caved. I read Twilight and New Moon, then I wandered off.  I’ve gone on record on this blog saying that I admire Stephenie Meyer a great deal. She made multi-million global phenomenon out of a whole lot of not much happening.

I get it. An awkward, inarticulate girl attracts the notice, then adoration, of an immortal alabaster god who enjoys nothing more than watching the clumsy girl breathe. Check.

There’s slo-mo courtly love and then there’s Twilight. Makes complete sense. This documentary is made for panting fans. Therefore, Destination Forks wasn’t really made for one as relatively cold-blooded about Twilight as I.

Nonetheless, I was game to learn more about the real place, a small town in Washington, where the Twilight series was based. Apparently, there are a lot of mossy, fog-shrouded trees in Forks, Washington. Thanks to this documentary, we get to see a lot of them.

There are also a whack load of unblinking teenagers who enthuse through glinting braces that they “sooooo loooooove” Twilight.

But the documentary isn’t without its charm. There’s a sweetness about the people who love Twilight and the plain-spoken people of the town of Forks. The owners of the town’s B&B nicknamed the “Cullen House” weave a yarn about the past owner who was a doctor with an adopted son just like the Cullen family. We get to the community hospital that apparently does reasonable business with its volunteer blood bank.

The owner of “Bella’s Italia” was initially nonplussed by the inexplicable popularity of one of his seasonal dishes, the mushroom ravioli. Then he was told, that’s the meal Edward bought Bella on their first date.

I learned stuff from Destination Forks. I learned that the fans with the real maniac gleam in their eyes are called “Twihards.”

I learned Twilight changed lives. We meet a South African woman, who convinced her poker-playing husband to move to Forks from Las Vegas. We meet Lori and Laura of Twilight Lexicon, Myriam of MSN TwiSuperfan, Kallie from Twilight Series Theories, Kara from Twilight Moms, and Twilight Guy Kaleb Nation.

Each blogger tells a tale of daily hits that would be enough to make any self-publishing scribbler salivate.

Undeniably, there’s something about what Stephenie Meyers has wrought that resonates with girls, women, boys and men the world over. And the little town of Forks has that same kind of creepy, wholesome charm that holds folks in its thrall.

For completist fans of Twilight, this is quaint little documentary you’ll want own to round out your collection … if only for the first-person shots of the candy apple red vintage pickup puttering around town.

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83 mossy, foggy minutes

Unrated