On the couch

DVD REVIEW

Beautiful Creatures***
Directed by: Richard LaGravenese
Starring: Alden Ehrenreich, Alice Englert, Emma Thompson, Jeremy Irons, Emmy Rossum, Viola Davis.

 

There is something pleasantly surprising about Beautiful Creatures and it’s not that it’s not complete sub-Twilight drivel. Although that, in itself, is enough to warrant a firm handshake, a stout clap on the back and an enormous sigh of relief.

No, the surprise lies in how good it almost is. And, while a promise unfulfilled is often the most frustrating of things, the very idea that there’s more going on here than winsome gazing, covert moral agendas and cashing in on the all-powerful vein of tween Dollars, Euros and Pounds is a faintly promising one.

Comparisons with Twilight are utterly unavoidable given Richard LaGravenese’s film is based on a successful series of books and the story stems from the love affair between a mortal and a supernatural teen, one of whom is new to the area.

Sound familiar? While Beautiful Creatures isn’t quite a straight palette-swop of the multi-bazillion dollar franchise that has ensured the financial legacy of the next hundred generations of Stephanie Meyers’ family, it comes awfully close, tweaking just a few details and eschewing the whole vampire thing for a more magical, witchy flavour.

Alden Ehrenreich is the mortal, a Southern charmer called Ethan who, when not nose-deep in Kurt Vonnegut, Charlie Bukowski or some-such “subversive” and “satanistic” tome, is busy planning his imminent departure from the claustrophobic and close-minded confines of Gatlin, South Carolina.

Into the mix is thrown newcomer Lena Duchannes, a young witch, or “caster” to give her her proper title, bearing down on her 16th birthday – a date upon which everyone of magic heritage chooses, or is chosen for, the side of either Good or Evil.

Used to a form of Southern ‘charm’ that has her tagged as a weirdo and a Satanist, Lena is understandably spiky toward her new classmates. Not that she spends too much time with them given her uncle, the grand poobah of local creepiness and oddity, Macon Ravenwood (Jeremy Irons), seems set on keeping her at home, alone with her family as much as possible.

Flying in the face of the local fondness for Bible-bashing and “forner-hatin’” and a rule in the caster world not to get cosy with mortals, the two strike up a relationship only to find that they may have a supernatural connection as well as a romantic one.

All this pales in comparison to the trouble looming when Lena’s evil mom, Sarafine, returns for her darling’s birthday and the fate of the world is suddenly put in danger.
While the central pairing of Ehrenreich and Englert are perfectly tolerable – Ehrenreich, in particular, showing a charm that could be parleyed into something beyond teen genre flicks – the real stars of the show are Thompson, Irons and, for their few brief scenes, Emmy Rossum and Viola Davis.

The older guard have a right good time chewing up any shred of scenery they can wrap their teeth around. The fun peeks in any scenes when the kids are kept out of the room and Uncle Macon and Sarafine (in the form of Emma Thompson) tear strips
off each other. it’s like the Passion Play by way of panto with some supremely hokey Suthurn accents thrown in for good measure.

With some of the more heavy-handed edges from the books shaved off for the film – the main characters not being able to touch at all or Uncle Macon being a vampire for example – there’s a something to be said for Beautiful Creatures.

At worst it’s not as bad as it could have been but, at best, it only rises to the dizzying heights of being vaguely tolerable. After the initial innovation of the story wears off, it falls into a well-worn furrow ploughed by any number of super-teen movies. While it gets a bump in kudos for its well chosen cast of grown-ups, there’s little else to recommend it.
Oh and there’s three more books to go – so brace yourself Beautiful people…