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Q: Reese Witherspoon's resume includes a movie called "Twilight" -- does it have anything to do with the vampire franchise?

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Author: 
Adam Thomlison / TV Media

It does not, and if anyone were still looking for this mostly forgotten 1998 thriller, it could get confusing.

Though it boasts an incredibly strong cast, among which the very young Witherspoon must have felt intimidated, "Twilight" got fairly poor reviews at the time, and was never a hit.

Roger Ebert praised the late-career performance of star Paul Newman, but followed it up by saying, "it's sad to see all that assurance used in the service of a plot so worn and mechanical."

He had similar things to say about co-stars Susan Sarandon, Gene Hackman and James Garner -- that they are, essentially, better than the material they were given.

Helping to minimize the confusion, and the potential lawsuits, is the fact that this "Twilight" was released seven years before the vampire-novel sensation of the same name, and 10 years before its smash-hit film adaptation.

The vampire-filled "Twilight," of course, has made billions in box-office and book revenues, and is credited by some (alongside the Harry Potter novels) with keeping the new generation literate.

Witherspoon's "Twilight," on the other hand, reportedly brought in just $15 million on a $20-million budget.

That lack of success didn't hurt Witherspoon's career, though -- her best films were still ahead of her. The following year, she appeared in what was, at the time, a bit of a teen sensation of her own: "Cruel Intentions," which was an update of the 1988 classic "Dangerous Liaisons" (which also happened to be based on a book, by French novelist Choderlos de Laclos).

 

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