Beautiful Creatures

Leaving town to get away from her abusive boyfriend, Dorothy (Susan Lynch) comes upon a scene that's all-too-familiar: another young woman getting smacked around in the middle of the street. When the resourceful Dorothy picks up a pipe and bashes the guy's head in, saving platinum blonde Petula (Rachel Weisz), the newly-bonded sisters are left with a dead body on their hands. Such is the set-up for this energetic and sometimes clever, dark comedy crime thriller from Scotland that's full of sharp ideas but undermined by blunt-headed characters and logistical loopholes. In fact, the only way several plot developments can come to fruition is by having Dorothy and Petula frequently swing back and forth between being fairly intelligent and unrealistically ignorant. Lynch and Weisz both give splendid performances, but preposterousness torpedoes these "beautiful creatures." Not a necessary purchase. (R. Blackwelder)