Beautiful Creatures

Cast of Characters:

Ethan Lawson Wate - Alden Ehrenreich

Lena Duchannes - Alice Englert

Macon Ravenwood - Jeremy Irons

Amma - Viola Davis

Ridley Duchannes - Emmy Rossum

Link - Thomas Mann

Mrs. Lincoln/Sarafine - Emma Thompson

Director - Richard LaGravenese

Screenplay - Richard LaGravenese

Based on the novel "Beautiful Creatures" by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

Rated PG-13 for violence, scary images and some sexual material

      We as a civilized and decent society have endured more Twilight films than necessary. By more than necessary, I mean all of them, and just when you thought we were finally done with these Twilight type movies where the populated city is half human and half misunderstood creatures, and the central characters set up as the love interests are just so emotionally distraught... we're given Beautiful Creatures. Think Twilight meets Clint Eastwood's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil... minus the murder.

      Down in Gatlin, South Carolina, Ethan Wate (Alden Ehrenreich) is a small-town high schooler who loves to read classic literature and dreams of going to college some day to further pursue that love. He also suffers from a recurring dream about a girl he does not know. On the first day of his junior year he meets a newcomer named Lena Duchannes (Alice Englert) who looks surprisingly familiar. Could be coincidence or maybe those dreams are more than just dreams. Not everyone's so keen on Lena joining the classroom. You know, once those "Her family worships Satan" rumors start flying, it's pretty hard to silence them. Also, using your mind to shatter all the classroom windows, scaring the hell out of everyone in the process, ain't exactly the best way to put an end to them either.

      Ethan and Lena gradually strike up a friendship and that's when he finds out she is in fact a witch. Wait. Don't you dare call them witches. They prefer the term Casters as she points out. I see now even witches prefer a more sensitive, politically correct term of self-definition. This friendship comes at much dismay to her introverted yet stylish Uncle Macon Ravenwood (Jeremy Irons). See, all witches - oops, I mean Casters - when they turn sixteen face a life altering turning point that is referred to as "The Claiming". That is when they learn their true nature of whether they are dark or light. From Macon's viewpoint, Lena is strong-willed enough to turn to light, but he sees Ethan as danger for her. Makes sense. They start dating. He breaks up with her. She turns bitter, and next thing you know, she's all "Double, Double, toil and trouble" and the town's painted red in blood.

      Naturally, there are those on both sides of the aisle trying to push Lena in either direction. Macon seeks out the help of Amma (Viola Davis), who runs the local library and has quite an extensive knowledge in how to handle curses and its particular histories - how convenient for the family. Of course, though, lurking in the dark are both Lena's cousin Ridley (Emmy Rossum) and Serafine (Emma Thompson), who's known in the family for being the most powerful dark Caster of all. In Ridley's mind, Lena's hopeless 'cause as she puts it, "I was just like her at her age and look how I turned out.", and Serafine feels a certain family curse will pull Lena to the dark if her own will doesn't.

      I obviously had low expectations about this. Twilight with witches was what I thought... but after seeing it, I gotta say, I found it rather entertaining. For starters, this movie wisely has quite a bit more of a sense of humor about itself than the Twilight series ever had. It's bad enough seeing glittery vampires mope around the place, would witches doing the same be any better? The performances are terrific, particularly the supporting cast, and that's really the film's biggest strength. Jeremy Irons and Viola Davis are terrific, and Emma Thompson by far steals the show in a performance that allows her to be theatrical and over the top. You can tell she was having fun with this role. Emmy Rossum, who I happen to love on Showtime's Shameless, also gives a terrifically entertaining performance vamping it up as the family temptress. The criticism I have is that the two leads are clearly overshadowed by the veteran presences onscreen. It's really the supporting cast that gets all the great lines and costumes, and there are moments where you see Ethan and Lena and wonder why they can't have something to sink their teeth into. All things considered, I won't quite punish the movie as a whole just for that. Plus, despite the overshawdowing, Alice Englert does bring a likeable presence and she shows some promise as well. You may find at times that Ethan comes off as annoyingly persistent too, but hey, you're saying you weren't a little bit of an irritating prick at the age of sixteen? I sure would love to go back eleven years and give my younger self a few bitch slaps upside the face.

      There's the age-old saying, "Never judge a book by its cover.", and in this case never judge a film by its trailer. I didn't expect to like this film, but I kinda enjoyed it. The performances are entertaining, the direction provides some beautiful Southern Gothic imagery (hence the Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil reference), and the story knows when to not be so serious, and in the wrong hands we could've gotten just another pile of melodramatic crap. I'll probably get flack for recommending this, but hey, so sue me. I'll just remind you of the ancient Internet meme Proverb... "Thou art still a better love story than Twilight." I give Beautiful Creatures a B (★★★).