Beautiful Creatures is a very appealing film. I was quite surprised by this entry. The trailer looked very ‘Twilight’-ish, even the posters had a Twilight feel. I’m rarely impressed when a movie ‘mimics’ another, so I assumed it was going to be a poor man’s Bella and Edward spin.
But it was very good, Alden Ehrenreich and Alice Englert make a great onscreen couple. With acting heavyweights Emma Thompson and Jeremy Irons on board, this drama lit up the screen.
The basic story is Lena Duchannes (Englert) is actually a magic person, a ‘caster’. She won’t get a sweet sixteenth birthday, for that’s when she’s chosen for either the light or dark side. Ehrenreich plays her love interest Ethan Waite, who has dreams about Lena before he meets her.
Irons plays Lena’ uncle Macon, whilst Thomspon plays a very mean townsfolk member, Mrs. Lincoln, whose intent on getting rid of poor Lena from the local school. The whole town ends up against Lena, who unsuccessfully tries to hide her magic.
Perhaps breaking a load of classroom windows during a lesson isn’t a good idea. D’oh!
Ethan’s best pal Link (Thomann Mann) provides the humour which is a welcome relief as it does get a bit dreary with the lovebirds bemoaning their love and how difficult things are.
But with a great script and good leads this film gets away with quite a lot. I found the CGI patchy in some scenes, the moaning from Ethan and Lena- which could have been cut… but for me it didn’t dampen the viewing. It was rather was like a favourite nephew/niece being naughty. You just forgive them.
A very good effort from all involved, which is why I award 7/10
Image reproduced from very aware.com
Trailer reproduced from You Tube/Hollywood streams
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