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.
