Based on the novel by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, Beautiful Creatures is a supernatural romance movie directed and written by Richard LaGravenese. Ethan Wate, your average teenage boy eager to get out of his small town, is captivated by new student Lena Duchannes, who is immediately rumored to be a witch after she arrives. Ethan and Lena begin seeing each other – against everyone’s wishes, because on her 16th birthday she will be claimed either by the supernatural forces of dark or light, thanks to a family curse.
Obviously Ethan and Lena would rather this not happen, especially not at the behest of the town’s prejudices, her evil mother, or any external force deciding her destiny for her.
It’s hard not to compare this film to other tween romance movies of the same ilk, Twilight being the elephant in the room that I’m almost sure gave Beautiful Creatures and its fellows a ready audience. But that said, Beautiful Creatures at least tries to stand apart with a signature cinematography, an accomplished cast, and an offbeat, humorous tone. All these work well in the movie, but can’t quite save it from falling under the weight of genre cliches. Beautiful Creatures brought nothing new to this table: Boy meets girl, girl has issues, boy and girl fight to save each other, happy ending.
Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but unfortunately, most people are just going to know it as the “Twilight with witches” movie.
To the film’s credit, the characters and actors work well, unlike some other tween romance movies where you could care less about anyone involved, due to the talent behind the roles. Ethan is played by Alden Ehrenreich’s Ethan and Alice Englert’s Lena have a nice chemistry, and both novice actors are given plenty of screentime to flesh out their parts. However, there are some long periods of time where it is just the pair on screen for important characterization, which sometimes overshadows other characters and slows the film down a bit.
What never slows this movie down is the rest of the wonderfully talented cast of Ethan and Lena’s friends and foes. Oscar winners Jeremy Irons and Emma Thompson and nominees Viola Davis and Emmy Rossum all bring their A-game and seem to enjoy themselves. Emma Thompson and Emmy Rossum are standout parts as Lena’s evil mother Sarafine and as her evil cousin Ridley. It’s clearly a very good time being bad girls, and the pair of conniving, lustful, evil witches that never bring a boring moment in the movie. For me, the best part was watching these two have fun on screen.
The movie looks great too, translating the book’s Southern atmosphere through the very distinctive New Orleans locations and imagery. You can’t always recreate that look onstage, what with the hanging trees filled with moss and the storm clouds over breathtaking sunsets, but Beautiful Creatures can thank the wonderful cinematography done by Philippe Rousselot (director of photography on both Sherlock Holmes films, a number of Tim Burton movies, and many period gothic pieces). Rousselot has a long and illustrious career, and his characteristic style and keen eye make this film stand apart from other tween romance films.
Also helping Beautiful Creatures are the sets and special effects. Director Richard LaGravenese chose to incorporate practical effects alongside computer graphics for certain scenes to allow for more control of the scene. These very clearly show the time and effort put into the production. (In the book’s famous dinner scene where Lena and Ridley have a witches duel, the film makers were very careful to have the table and chairs all spin with the actors, getting the timing just right for the effect to work.) It looks great in the film, and shows a definite interest in craftsmanship for its own sake.
Not being the targeted demographic for this particular film, I still felt it was good and did an effective job of creating a magical world. Beautiful Creatures isn’t a new story. The cliches are running throughout the film like a wild child, but it’s still a fun film with an accomplished cast worth the price of admission by themselves. It was certainly much better than the Twilight series, and unlike in those films, it really feels like time and care was taken to make a good movie.
If this is a genre you enjoy, or you’re looking to watch a simple romance with supernatural elements, then this might be the movie for you.