Beautiful Creatures
Beautiful Creatures is based on the first book in "The Caster Chronicles" series by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. It's obviously intended to lead to many more sequels based on the further books. Whether or not the movie hits it big enough at the box office to ensure more movies, this is an interesting film. Writer-director Richard LaGravenese has obviously studied the teen supernatural romance craze very well, and gives the young girls in the audience plenty to squeal over. And yet, he throws in a little more wit and intelligence than you might expect. The characters are certainly smarter than anyone who's ever inhabited a Twilight movie. They talk about and read from authors like Kurt Vonnegut, and have a sense of humor about themselves. It's almost like the characters are in on the joke. The moment I heard Emma Thompson proclaim "Well slap my ass, and call me Sally!", I knew that the actors were having as much fun with this stuff as I was.
The story is set in the fictional small town of Gatlin, which is home to 12 churches and no Starbucks, our young hero proclaims at the beginning of the film. That would be Ethan Wate (Alden Ehrenreich), a disillusioned young man who escapes into books like Slaughterhouse Five in order to avoid the more popular students at his high school, who are general Bible thumpers, and see anyone different from them as a threat. Ethan has enough easy going charm that one of the popular girls likes him, but he has no interest in joining their clique, and plans to get as far away from Gatlin as soon as he graduates. On his first day of school, a new student shows up in his class - Lena Duchannes (the likable Alice Englert). Lena is treated as a total outcast almost the instant she shows up in class, due to the fact she lives in the decaying Ravenwood mansion with her Uncle Macon (Jeremy Irons), whom many in the town suspects is a devil worshiper, due to the strange tales of rituals that surround the home. Ethan is smitten with the girl, and becomes even more fascinated when it seems like she can make the windows in the classroom shatter in an instant without doing anything when the other girls in class start picking on her. This leads to her following her home one day.
At Ravenwood, Ethan strikes up a friendship with the withdrawn and cautious Lena, who seems very nervous about making friends in this narrow-minded community. Turns out, she has good reason. Lena is a "Caster", and holds tremendous magical power. In fact, in her family of witches and warlocks, she is the most powerful. Lena is set to turn 16 on December 21st, and apparently that's an important milestone, as when they reach that age, a Caster discovers their true nature in a ceremony, and whether they will be claimed for the forces of good or evil. With her fateful birthday approaching, some uninvited guests show up in the town of Gatlin. Lena's mother, Serafine (Emma Thompson), a dark Caster, and Lena's cousin Ridley (Emmy Rosum), a siren who can control the minds of men, have arrived to make sure that Lena follows their path of darkness. While this battle for Lena's future soul begins to ignite between the "light" and "dark" Casters, the town itself seems to take little notice. They're too busy gearing up for the annual Civil War re-enactment, which just happens to fall on Lena's birthday.
Beautiful Creatures comes dangerously close to being overly stuffed and going over the top at times, but its reeled in with its laid back humor, and the fact that the two young lovers in the middle of it all are quite likable. For all of its special effects and eternal battle between the forces of good and evil, this really is a simple love story about two outcasts who find support and comfort in each other. What's more, these are semi-interesting characters who talk like they have brains. Unlike the vapid lovers of Twilight, Ethan and Lena act like they've had an intelligent thought in their young lives. That alone makes them at least interesting to watch. As for the story that surrounds them, as silly as it is, it's certainly never boring. I was interested in the hidden world of Casters, and wanted to learn more. One of the annoyances of the screenplay is how condensed the plot feels, despite having an overly generous running time of just over two hours. I guess that's what the books are for.
I also like how many of the actors just throw themselves into the performances. Jeremy Irons and Emma Thompson are obviously having a grand time playing the head representatives of the "good" and "evil" sides of the Caster world, respectively. Should sequels to this movie be made, I hope it will go further into some of the interesting characters that we only catch glimpses of in this movie. This would include most of Lena's family, who are introduced during a dinner party scene, show up throughout the film, but are never really developed. However, at least the filmmakers have planned for the worst. In case this movie bombs and no more get the green light, at least we're not left with a cliffhanger that will never be fulfilled. The movie does end in a somewhat open-ended fashion, but in case no more are made, it works as a resolution to this particular film's story.
See the movie times in your area or buy the DVD at Amazon.com!
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