Beautiful Creatures

Dark secrets will come to light
Dark secrets will come to light


BEAUTIFUL CREATURES (12)
D: Richard LaGravenese
Warner Bros./Alcon (Andrew Kosove, Broderick Johnson, Erwin Stoff & David Valdes)
USA 🇺🇸 2013
124 mins
 
Fantasy/Romance
 
W: Richard LaGravenese [based on the novel by Kami Garcia Margaret Stohl]
DP: Philippe Rousselot
Ed: David Moritz
PD: Richard Sherman
Cos: Jeffrey Kurland
 
Alden Ehrenreich (Ethan Lawson Wate), Alice Englert (Lena Duchannes), Jeremy Irons (Macon Melchizedek Ravenwood), Viola Davis (Amarie Treadeau), Emmy Rossum (Ridley Duchannes), Thomas Mann (Wesley Jefferson Lincoln), Emma Thompson (Mavis Lincoln / Sarafine Duchannes)
 
A family of spellcasters live in hiding in a small town in the Deep South.  The daughter of the family falls in love with a boy from school.
*yawn* This movie was nowhere near as interesting as its synopsis or the trailers.
It's another modern fantasy in the Twilight mould, based on "young adult literature" which I haven't read and have no intention to. The subject focuses on witches rather than vampires and werewolves but it's still the same story as Twilight, set in a small town where all the characters talk like Forrest Gump. 
Emma Thompson & Jeremy Irons seem to have lots of fun, but the rest of the cast are unremarkable and the characters quite one-dimensional.
I'm sure this film would be enjoyed by its target demographic, but I'm certainly not part of that.
5/10

Alice Englert in Beautiful Creatures
Alice Englert in Beautiful Creatures
Did You Know:
The role of Amma is actually a combination of two roles from the book; Amma, a housekeeper/Seer, and Marian, a librarian and Ethan's late mother's best friend. Screenwriter/director Richard LaGravenese combined the two parts in the hope of attracting a great actress. 'Viola Davis' was his first and only choice for the role.