Beautiful Creatures (FILM REVIEW)
Beautiful
Creatures
Film Review
by Kam Williams
Headline:
Puppy Love Blossoms across Species in Supernatural
Romantic Fantasy
Ethan (Alden
Ehrenreich) has lived his whole life in Gatlin,
South Carolina, a tiny town in
denial about the fact that the South lost the Civil War. The community is so
backwards that it has banned books as seemingly innocuous as “To Kill a
Mockingbird.”
This
frustrating state of affairs has left the curious sophomore determined to
attend a college far, far away from the Bible Belt. In the meantime, however,
he is secretly reading any of the censored titles he can get his hands on.
For
months, Ethan has also been haunted by a recurring nightmare in which he attempts
to approach a gorgeous ghost, only to die right before reaching her.
Consequently, he wakes up in a cold sweat every morning with a crush on an apparent
apparition he thinks doesn’t really exist.
But,
as luck would have it, a new transfer student who’s the spitting image of the
girl of his dreams shows up in Ethan’s class on the first day of the fall
semester. Recently-orphaned Lena (Alice
Englert) has just been taken in by her Uncle Macon Ravenwood (Jeremy Irons),
the wealthy neighborhood weirdo whose family founded Gatlin generations ago.
Most
of the locals know better than to trespass onto the unwelcoming, Gothic Ravenwood
Estate, but not Ethan, who’s too smitten with Lena
to care. It’s not long before he and Lena are
an item, although the flirty 15 year-old does her best to warn her new beau
that she’s nothing but trouble.
If
only Ethan bothered to consult librarian/seer Amma Treadeau (Viola Davis), he’d
know to steer clear of the entire Ravenwood clan. For, truth be told, they’re “Casters,”
meaning otherworldly beings whose supernatural powers kick in when they turn
16. And with Lena’s impending 16th
birthday just over the horizon, the burning question is whether she’ll be a
good witch or drawn to the dark side by her cousin (Emmy Rossum) and late
mother (Emma Thompson).
Thus
unfolds Beautiful Creatures, a deliciously naughty adaptation of Kami Garcia
and Margaret Stohl’s young adult novel of the same name. Directed by Richard
LaGravenese, the picture’s plotline is a bit reminiscent of the vampire/human series
Twilight, except with the human and non-human protagonists’ genders switched.
Between
a talented cast and a compelling script, Beautiful Creatures is bound to do
well with the targeted tweener/teen demo with which such cross-species romances
seem to resonate
nowadays. A viable jumpstart of yetta nudder escapist fantasy franchise.
Very Good
(3 stars)
Rated PG-13 for violence, sexuality and scary images
Running time: 118 minutes
Distributor: Warner
Brothers
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