Beautiful Creatures: Supernatural romance doesn’t quite cast a spell

The first 15 minutes of Beautiful Creatures are actually quite promising. Writer-director Richard LaGravenese (P.S. I Love You) shows some restraint as he introduces us to Ethan (Alden Ehrenreich), a young teenager who just can’t wait to get out of Gatlin, South Carolina, a small-minded small town that still bans books from its library. Ethan even makes fun of the fact that the city’s only cinema never spells the names of the films right on its marquee. So he’s more than intrigued when he meets Lena (Alice Englert), an outsider who reportedly has a dark past. After a little clever verbal sparring, the two hit it off , but Lena’s eccentric and protective uncle Macon (Jeremy Irons) warns him to stay away from his niece.

The rumor around high school is that the new girl is a witch. In truth, Lena is actually a “caster.” While she has supernatural powers, she won’t know whether she’ll be able to use them for good or evil until “the calling,” which takes place on her 16^th birthday. She eventually lets Ethan in on her situation and he’s actually very supportive. The story becomes even more complicated when her mother Sarafine (Emma Thompson) and cousin Ridley (Emmy Rossum) show up in town and try to drive her to the dark side.

Like Twilight, Beautiful Creatures is also based on a fantasy novel. But unlike Twilight, the storyline here just isn’t compelling. These characters aren’t ones we really care about. Ehrenreich doesn’t make Ethan into much more than a well-educated hillbilly and Englert doesn’t bring Lena to life. Thompson tries too hard to make Sarafine seem demented and Rossum isn’t in the film long enough to leave an impression. Irons is effectively creepy, but his performance is the one exception. The special effects are cheesy and the love story simply loses its luster as soon as it escalates into something supernatural and words such as “destiny” are bandied about.