Matt Lickona reviews Twilight at Inside Catholic, and kind of likes it.

He says it’s a no-sex movie about sex.

It turns on its head the silly modern formula “I love you so much, I can’t control myself.” Writes Lickona: “In that case, he doesn’t want to have sex with you; he wants to suck your blood until you die. But the character of the desire is the same: overwhelming in its ferocity, all-consuming. He wants it more than anything in the world, because, don’t you know, you’re special. You’re the one that he loves. And the real wonder of it is this: That’s the same reason he doesn’t take what he wants.”

He’s impressed by the number of girls flocking to see the movie on opening night (my daugher was invited to flock, but didn’t go). Writes Lickona: “There are these hundreds of girls, lining up to see a guy who loves a girl so much that he won’t have his way with her.”

If the movie is secretly about sex, Lickona’s review is secretly about spirituality. Consider:

“Of course, love isn’t safe, especially when you love someone supernatural. But part of the fun of Twilight is the way the story takes that supernatural aspect and sinks it into the everyday. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say that once you’re in love, everything everyday takes on a supernatural aspect. Climbing a tree, playing baseball, listening to music—it’s all so much more than ordinary. Love itself becomes supernatural—which it kind of is, if you believe the Gospels. The sort of thing that allows a person to transcend nature and, say, lay down her life for another.”

It’s refreshing to read a review that says things you didn’t expect.

But Lickona didn’t exactly answer the question that I came to the review with: “Can I let my daughter watch it?”

— Tom Hoopes