Twisted

Yasmin and Julian’s love affair illustrates the rewards of freely choosing a life path and partner, in contrast to having one’s fate dictated by others. Yasmin in particular struggles with having her choices limited by others, while Julian finds joy in feeling that he has been chosen—and thus deemed valuable—by another.

Yasmin’s distress at having her life choices limited by parental or cultural decree is a theme borrowed from the source material. The Disney animated film Aladdin predicates its conflict on the Sultan’s insistence that his daughter, Jasmine, marry a respectable suitor of her father’s choosing. In Twisted, Yasmin, who has already hidden her love of photography and her love from Aidan from her father, finds herself facing a similar obligation to marry, but unable to freely choose the man she believes she loves. Though she enlists Julian’s help and then marries him, she feels she didn’t have a fair choice when the alternative was to disappoint her father or harm Aidan. Imprisoned in Julian’s home, forbidden by him to leave—and unable to do so on her own, since she doesn’t drive—Yasmin feels like a pet in a cage, not so different from his snake, Isabella. The one choice available to her, with Riya’s help, is to consult the lawyer who can help her leave Julian and achieve the freedom of choice she longs for.