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February 24, 2013, Sunday
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THE genders have been reversed but the supernatural, star-crossed teen angst remains firmly intact in "Beautiful Creatures," which clearly aims to pick up where the "Twilight" franchise left off.
Writer-director Richard LaGravenese's film, based on the first novel in the young adult series by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, oozes Southern Gothic eccentricity and some amusing if inconsistent touches of camp. (A droll, drawling Jeremy Irons sitting at the piano playing Chopin? Margo Martindale in a feathery hairclip, carrying a live peacock? Yes and yes, please.)
But a strong cast of likable and, yes, beautiful actors can only do so much with the formula in which they're forced to work. And, like the "Twilight" movies, the special effects are all-too often distractingly cheesy.
The setup breathes some new life into such familiar material, though, as co-stars Alden Ehrenreich and Alice Englert feel like actual awkward teens enjoying the fraught thrills of first love rather than slick, ironic kids who are too cool. Once the plot machinations start grinding in the second half, though, "Beautiful Creatures" as a whole grinds to a halt. Spells and scenery-chewing can be a hoot; watching people sitting around scouring ancient tomes for clues, not so much.
Ehrenreich's character, 17-year-old Ethan Wate, grew up in the suffocating small town of Gatlin, South Carolina, and is dying to get out. But the arrival of the mysterious Lena Duchannes (Englert) makes Gatlin suddenly tolerable. She's come to live with her uncle, Macon Ravenwood (Irons), a descendant of the town's founders and an alleged Satanist who never leaves Ravenwood Manor. Ethan is intrigued.
It turns out that Lena is - duh, duh-duh-duh! - a witch, or rather a "caster," as her kind are called in the vernacular. And at a ritual on her 16th birthday, she'll find out whether she's destined for goodness or evil.
Ehrenreich has a goofy charm about him that makes him attractive but also seemingly accessible. And Englert, the daughter of acclaimed director Jane Campion, has a natural beauty and directness about her that are appealing.
She doesn't sparkle in the sun - instead, she shines from the inside. And she will again, with better material.
Writer-director Richard LaGravenese's film, based on the first novel in the young adult series by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, oozes Southern Gothic eccentricity and some amusing if inconsistent touches of camp. (A droll, drawling Jeremy Irons sitting at the piano playing Chopin? Margo Martindale in a feathery hairclip, carrying a live peacock? Yes and yes, please.)
But a strong cast of likable and, yes, beautiful actors can only do so much with the formula in which they're forced to work. And, like the "Twilight" movies, the special effects are all-too often distractingly cheesy.
The setup breathes some new life into such familiar material, though, as co-stars Alden Ehrenreich and Alice Englert feel like actual awkward teens enjoying the fraught thrills of first love rather than slick, ironic kids who are too cool. Once the plot machinations start grinding in the second half, though, "Beautiful Creatures" as a whole grinds to a halt. Spells and scenery-chewing can be a hoot; watching people sitting around scouring ancient tomes for clues, not so much.
Ehrenreich's character, 17-year-old Ethan Wate, grew up in the suffocating small town of Gatlin, South Carolina, and is dying to get out. But the arrival of the mysterious Lena Duchannes (Englert) makes Gatlin suddenly tolerable. She's come to live with her uncle, Macon Ravenwood (Irons), a descendant of the town's founders and an alleged Satanist who never leaves Ravenwood Manor. Ethan is intrigued.
It turns out that Lena is - duh, duh-duh-duh! - a witch, or rather a "caster," as her kind are called in the vernacular. And at a ritual on her 16th birthday, she'll find out whether she's destined for goodness or evil.
Ehrenreich has a goofy charm about him that makes him attractive but also seemingly accessible. And Englert, the daughter of acclaimed director Jane Campion, has a natural beauty and directness about her that are appealing.
She doesn't sparkle in the sun - instead, she shines from the inside. And she will again, with better material.
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