C-
College-bound senior in high school Ethan Wate (Aiden Ehrenreich) wants to escape Gatlin, South Carolina. He’s tired of the archaic ways of the South, the ignorant people, and the lack of culture. Alas, with absence of parents (he’s cared for by Viola Davis), he finds refuge and guidance in literary classics – The Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Slaughterhouse-Five (which he mentions more times than Billy Pilgrim would probably like).
Unlike Pilgrim in Kurt Vonnegut’s satirical masterpiece, Ethan is not “unstuck in time.” Bored, frustrated, dazed, and confused, he’s very much stuck in a tiresome rut. That is until an enigmatic new girl by the name of Lena Duchannes (Alice Englert) comes to school. Immediately criticized by her fellow classmates for being the niece of “old man Ravenwood” (Ravenwood, played by Jeremy Irons, is considered the affluent “Boo Radley” of Gatlin), Lena peaks Ethan’s interested the moment she walks into the classroom.
Though perhaps not love at first sight, Ethan subsequently pursues Lena. She initially resists his charm, intelligence, and handsomeness. But, as with any fantasy teen romance, she inevitably succumbs to the temptation.
Beautiful Creatures plays very much into the hands of its core audience: young teenage girls still heartbroken that we won’t be receiving another 22 Twilight movies in the near future. Based on the successful young-adult novel of the same title by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohi, the film takes its time introducing the mythical, magical element of the story.
Lena is soon revealed as a “Caster,” a person who can use magic at any moment. Unfortunately, with her 16th birthday on the horizon she has issues far more pressing than puberty or periods. When she turns 16 she will either be declared a “Dark” or “Light” Caster (essentially “good or “evil”).
The clandestine love-story that blossoms between Ethan and Lena, escalated by the impending doom that is her birthday, comes off much like rest of the movie: sweet and well-intentioned, yet incredibly silly. Most of the time it seems even director Richard LaGravenese (responsible for Freedom Writers) is not taking this narrative seriously. Which begs the question, why should we?
Ethan and Lena are likable enough, but by the end of this faux-love story, each character is dragged through a plethora of contrived and trite material that we end up caring for neither of them.
Aimless and unfocused in execution, Beautiful Creatures is a film that both tries too hard to be witty and clever, and tries too little to be something of substance. It makes sense that LaGravenese, a born and raised New-Yorker, is incapable of making an authentic gothic fantasy set in South Carolina (although the film was shot in Louisiana).
Outside of the romantic lead, the local bible-thumping, “voluminous backside” townsfolk are drawn as cartoonish, hateful, and micro-brained imbeciles that resemble anything but humans. Whether intentional or not, Beautiful Creatures is equally the most disingenuous and offensive representation of the South in recent memory.
Perhaps the goofiness of Beautiful Creatures is ingrained in the veins of the its source material. In which case, devoted fans will find the film a blissful experience. For most, however, LaGravenese’s return to filmmaking will not be a particularly welcome one.
Unfortunately, Beautiful Creatures is no To Kill a Mockingbird. Then again, not much is.
