3.5 stars. Rating: PG-13, for carnal behavior, violence and mild profanity
By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 2.15.13
Fantasy fans mourning the
departure of the Harry Potter and Twilight series will find plenty to enjoy
in director/scripter Richard LaGravenese’s lush, well-mounted adaptation of Beautiful Creatures, the first novel in Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl’s Caster Chronicles tetralogy.
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| Macon Ravenwood (Jeremy Irons, left) doesn't like the fact that his niece, Lena (Alice Englert), seems to be falling in love with Ethan (Alden Ehrenreich). For a time, Macon won't explain why this is such a bad idea, but that doesn't really matter; not even the older man's unusual powers will prevent Ethan from pursuing the girl of his dreams. |
The contemporary Southern Gothic
setting is irresistible, right from the start, and production designer Richard
Sherman has a ball with Ravenwood Manor, the mysterious estate that looms at
the fringes of this small South Carolina town. The atmosphere borrows slightly
from both Stephenie Meyer (Twilight) and Charlaine Harris (the Sookie
Stackhouse novels that led to HBO’s True Blood), but you’ll also detect
elements of Dark Shadows and The Addams Family.
Along with, I’m delighted to
report, a fairly strong echo of Ray Bradbury’s various tales of the
supernatural Elliot family, introduced in the 1945 short story “The Traveler”
and, ultimately, earning a novel, From the Dust Returned, in 2001.
Quite a delectable collection of
ingredients.
As we’re informed by 17-year-old
Ethan Wate (Alden Ehrenreich), his home town of Gatlin never quite made it to
the 21st century, and many of the town’s small-minded, Bible-quoting citizens
seem unwilling to embrace the modern world.
“There are only two kinds of
people in our town,” Ethan cheerfully tells us, as off-camera narrator, “the
stupid and the stuck. The ones who are bound to stay or too dumb to go.
Everyone else finds a way out.”
Ethan endears himself to us
immediately, thanks to his fondness for reading everything on the community’s
copious banned books list. The film begins at the advent of a new school year,
with Ethan plainly having outgrown the holier-than-thou conceit of former
girlfriend Emily (Zoey Deutch). He’s much more intrigued by new student Lena
Duchannes (Alice Englert), whose presence immediately scandalizes Emily and her
equally stuck-up, self-righteous best friend Savannah (Tiffany Boone).
Because, as everybody knows, Lena
lives in Ravenwood Manor.
Matters aren’t helped by freakish
lightning strikes and other strange events that seem to have coincided with
Lena’s arrival ... at least, that’s the way the sanctimonious Mrs. Lincoln
(Emma Thompson) sees it. She demands that Lena be expelled from school during a
town meeting that turns livelier with the unexpected arrival of the reclusive
Macon Ravenwood (Jeremy Irons).
Macon points out, gently but
firmly — with every word weighted by Irons’ marvelously sweet but threatening
gaze — that he owns a good portion of Gatlin. Incur his wrath by expelling his
niece, and, why, who knows how he might respond.
Check and mate. Much to Mrs.
Lincoln’s simmering fury.
In truth, though, there IS
something unusual about Lena, as Ethan knows better than anybody. He has
suffered the same recurring dream for months, about a dark-haired young woman
whose face never quite reveals itself, and a Civil War battlefield where a
young soldier is shot while trying to reach his own beloved.
Lena, Ethan now realizes, is —
literally — the dark-haired girl of his dreams.
LaGravenese takes his time
introducing the primary players and establishing all these details. He’s an
elegant, intelligent writer with a flair for piquant dialogue laced with subtle
connotations: just right for this material. We’ve enjoyed his work on films as
diverse as A Little Princess, The Bridges of Madison County, The Horse
Whisperer and The Fisher King, the latter bringing him a well-deserved
Academy Award nomination.
Macon does his best to keep his
niece away from Ethan, starting with a casual conversation that turns
disturbingly grim (a scene that Ehrenreich plays perfectly). But young love is
not to be denied, mostly because Lena is just as captivated by Ethan, as he is
with her.
Eventually, then, Ethan meets
more members of Lena’s extended family: the prim Gramma (Eileen Atkins) and
often flustered Aunt Del (Margo Martindale), and the quiet cousin Larkin (Kyle
Gallner).
And cousin Ridley (Emmy Rossum).
Particularly Ridley, a voluptuous free spirit with a fondness for scanty
clothing and decidedly malignant behavior.
At which point, we and Ethan
learn the truth: Lena and her clan are “casters,” a term they prefer to the
pejorative label of “witch.” All casters have powers, particularly the women,
who face a “claiming” on their 16th birthday: the point at which they’re
“taken” either by Light or Dark forces.
Ridley, once a sweet girl and
Lena’s best friend, was claimed by the Dark; she became a siren, doomed — and
delighted — to toy with men of any age. The Dark forces are ruled by Sarafine,
an unseen (but hovering) figure of pure wickedness who hopes that Lena, as
well, will embrace evil upon her upcoming 16th birthday. Macon, in turn, hopes
to protect the girl from this fate ... and worries that Ethan’s distracting
presence might disrupt these efforts.
Quite a pickle. And rather a lot
for a small-town boy to absorb.
But Ethan’s up for the challenge,
and not merely because he has grown to adore Lena. Ehrenreich gives the young
man just the right blend of intelligence, spunk and mule-stubborn
determination; he’s a captivating young hero, even though he tends to be acted
upon, rather than act. He is, after all, the helpless mortal in this heady
brew, much like frustrated young Timothy, the only normal member of Bradbury’s
Elliot family.
We’re charmed both by
Ehrenreich’s broad smile and affable behavior, and by the sly, tart dialogue
LaGravenese grants him, both as narrator and during exchanges with all these
strange people.
Englert’s Lena is equally
captivating: initially aloof, having learned to be wary of “normals,” and then
every inch the winsome young woman won over by Ethan’s unwavering pursuit.
Englert is far more interesting and engaging, and has a more vibrant presence,
than Kristen Stewart’s dull, pouty Bella Swan in the Twilight films.
Irons lends these proceedings an
aristocratic flair as the rather complicated Macon, a character we can’t nail
down for quite awhile; Irons handles that duality sublimely. And Rossum is a
hoot as the vampish Ridley, who relishes her own depravity and then worries us
— big time — when her attentions turn to Ethan’s best friend, Link (Thomas
Mann) ... who happens to be Mrs. Lincoln’s son.
Viola Davis delivers another of
her rich, dignified performances as Amma, the town librarian and a longtime
friend of Ethan’s family, who has her own unexpected place in these events.
The film is pretty much stolen,
though, by Emma Thompson. She’s spot-on as the sort of intrusive, self-righteous
busybody who fancies herself the town’s unofficial Christian soul: a meddling
do-gooder convinced that she knows what’s best for everybody. But Thompson
really goes to town once things kick into gear, thanks to a plot twist I’d
rather not reveal here. Suffice to say, Thompson truly knows how to deliver a
line. All her lines.
Costume designer Jeffrey Kurland
is kept busy, from the antebellum affectations of Macon, Gramma and Aunt Del,
to Ridley’s amusingly slutty outfits and Mrs. Lincoln’s hilariously impossible
hats. The film’s rich atmosphere — we can sense the oppressive,
calm-before-a-thunderstorm humidity — is augmented by a moody score from
thenewno2 (as in “the new No. 2,” a line borrowed from TV’s classic 1967
series, The Prisoner), a band/art collective led by Grammy Award-winning
singer/guitarist Dhani Harrison.
Beautiful Redemption, Garcia
and Stohl’s fourth and final (?) book in the series, was just released in
October. LaGravenese has done a lovely job with this adaptation of the first
book, and all the elements certainly are in place for an ongoing series. The
question is whether the fantasy faithful will embrace this cinematic
interpretation, where so many other efforts — The Golden Compass and The
Lightning Thief come to mind — have perished after only one film.
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