Name: Beautiful Creatures (2013)
IMDb: Beautiful Creatures main page
Genres: Fantasy, YA female, coming of age, romance, comedy
Cast: Alden Ehrenreich as Ethan Wate, Alice Englert as Lena Duchannes, Jeremy Irons as Macon Ravenwood, Viola Davis as Amma, Emma Thompson as Seraphine, Emmy Rossum as Ridley Duchannes, Thomas Mann as Link.
Directed by: Richard LaGravenese. Written by: Richard LaGravenese (screenplay), Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl (book).
The Three Acts:
Initial tableau: Ethan lives in Gatlin, South Carolina and visits high school there. He bemoans the fact that he has little prospect of leaving, and has applied to a number of colleges. The town seems stuck in the past, particularly the Civil War. His mother is dead; his father is next to catatonic. His welfare is looked after by himself (somewhat) and Amma (mostly). One day a new girl arrives in his class, Lena Duchannes. Her family founded the town some centuries ago, and still owns everything of importance in it.
The delineation of conflicts: Ethan wants to get to know Lena, which immediately creates separation between him and almost all of his former friends in town. Ethan visits Lena at home, which creates immediate tension between him and her uncle, Macon Ravenwood. The Ravenwood/Duchannes clan are gathering at the family compound to witness the coming of age birthday of Lena.
So far, this all seems rather ordinary. The fantasy element is that all members of the Ravenwood family are casters; that is, beings who cast magical spells, often with considerable power. At the sixteenth birthday, Ravenwood teenagers reach their full power as casters, and choose between the dark and the light sides of casting. Lena would rather not be a dark caster like her mother Seraphina, but fate seems to have marked her to be such. Ethan would like to be Lena's husband, but has the full opposition of everyone in Lena's family. Amma would like to help Lena and Ethan to their best possible outcome.
Resolution: Well, watch the film. The resolution was brilliant in my opinion, but what do you think?
One line summary: Well done coming of age fantasy.
Statistics:
a. Cinematography: 8/10 I thought the lighting and camera work were fine, and the limited use of CGI was good. It was not world destruction style CGI; rather, just enough to support the story.
b. Sound: 8/10
c. Acting: 9/10 The veteran actors were excellent and the younger ones did well enough.
d. Screenplay: 8/10 I've seen this film compared to Twilight, which is odd. This film has good acting and a witty script. I do not remember laughing while plowing through Twilight, but this one is much better. I anticipated some of the outcome, but not all, and the route to get there was a fun ride.
e. Final rating: eight of ten
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