Beautiful Creatures

Aimed squarely at Twihards, director Richard LaGravenese's Beautiful Creatures is a sudsy, supernatural Southern Gothic love story based on the first book in a bestselling YA series by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. After alienated 15-year-old Lena Duchannes (Alice Englert) moves to the stifling, superstitious town of Gatlin, SC, she anxiously tries to keep a low profile while counting down the days until her not-so-sweet 16th—when a family curse predicts that she will undergo a “claiming” ritual to determine whether she's a Light (good) or Dark (evil) Caster of spells. As a mysterious outsider, Lena immediately captures the heart of the film's narrator, Ethan Wate (Alden Ehrenreich)—a lad steeped in literary influences, including Jack Kerouac, Kurt Vonnegut, and Henry Miller—who dreams about an ethereal, dark-haired stranger on a Civil War battlefield. Despite their obvious differences, Lena and Ethan eventually come to discover that they may be following the same fateful footpath as two 19th-century lovers. “Love is a spell created by mortals to give women something they can have besides power,” explains the devilish Sarafine (Emma Thompson, in a dual role), jousting with Lena's reclusive uncle, Macon Ravenwood (Jeremy Irons), who fears for Lena's future if she, as a witch, were to love a mortal. LaGravenese tones down the maudlin, adolescent angst clichés here, changing the source material in a creepy and complicated manner that will either delight or infuriate avid fans of the novels. A strong optional purchase. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include deleted scenes (8 min.), and trailers. Exclusive to the Blu-ray release are the behind-the-scenes featurettes “Book to Screen,” “Designing the Costumes,” “The Casters,” “Forbidden Romance,” and “Alternate Worlds” (24 min. total), and bonus DVD and UltraViolet copies of the film. Bottom line: a decent extras package for an uneven film.] (S. Granger)