Who could have predicted that one day we would long for the relative subtlety of “Twilight� Richard LaGravenese’s “Beautiful Creatures†is so outrageously florid, Bella and Edward’s baroque courtship looks understated by comparison.
This time, it’s mortal outsider Ethan (Alden Ehrenreich) who pines for his supernatural beloved, Lena (Alice Englert), in a small South Carolina town. Lena is a witch (or “Caster,†as they’re called), and on her 16th birthday she will be claimed by either the Light or the Dark. She desperately wants to stay in the light, but she’s being pulled to the dark by her evil mother (Emma Thompson, overdoing it).
Love between mortals and Casters is forbidden, but Ethan won’t be denied. His sensible guardian (Viola Davis) and Lena’s uncle (Jeremy Irons) are equally determined to help Lena save herself.
The young-adult series of books on which the film is based is basically a more enlightened version of “Twilight.†The heroine has her own powers, plus a boyfriend who staunchly supports, rather than moodily stalks, her.
But LaGravenese, who wrote the script, doesn’t get it. This is a story about the frightening, uncontrollable changes of adolescence, not a mid-century Tennessee Williams melodrama.
He lays the Southern soapiness on so thick, we can barely find the characters under the kudzu. And are there no working actors actually from the South? Only someone with an authentic accent might have been able to sell this broadly drawled dialogue.
Wide-eyed and goofy, Ehrenreich plays Ethan more like Forrest Gump than a kid who’d be into Bukowski and fall for the class witch. Englert (daughter of director Jane Campion) is better, but she doesn’t make the impact a more experienced actress might. What’s missing â€" from the entire movie â€" is that magical spark that can turn a film into a franchise.
No comments:
Post a Comment