ReWatch: "Beautiful Creatures"

This movie is a recent release, but I was unable to review it on my blog. I had seen it before the inkling of having this blog. It is so wonderful that it deserves a shout out.

"Beautiful Creatures" (Feb. 2013)

A really good movie of a book makes you want to read the book.

When this book came out Twilight had had its day, and frankly, I was a little tired of the dark creature being in love with the human. I get it. It ends badly, but they are going to do it any way. Twilight mostly stinks because it's all brooding stares and constipation-like facial expressions. They are so pained at their tortured relationship that they can never be happy.

Boring. I'm never gonna have that. No matter how much I wish I had a vampire boyfriend, it's not going to happen. So why would I want to watch a 2 hour movie about it? And read a four book series?

Because this story does what no other supernatural romance has been able to do. It makes it relatable.

The Plot

Lena (Alice Englert) is a caster, aka a witch, who will be "claimed" by the dark magic or by the light magic on her 16th birthday. She comes to stay with her uncle Macon (Jeremy Irons) in Gatlin, South Carolina, a very rural, very conservative, very boring town. Our hero Ethan (Alden Ehrenreich) lives with his dad who he never sees and the housekeeper/family friend Amma (Viola Davis). Ethan longs to escape this retched town, his annoying, blond, uber conservative Christian girlfriend, and the fear that he will be stuck in this town for the rest of his life.

Then he meets mysterious Lena who everyone says is a devil worshipper, or something else horrible like that. Ethan could care less what anyone else thinks so he wanders into her life one day and can't seem to let go.

The film tells the story of their love, the secrets that are hidden from Lena about her past and about her all-powerful dark mother Sarafine (Emma Thompson). Which side will she be claimed for-the dark or the light?

The Message

SPOILERS!!!- The idea behind this movie is that you have a choice in your future. You are not claimed, but instead you get to decide your fate by what you do and who you love. As we have learned from rom-coms, love is not something you can control. But you can control what you do for the one you love. Too many times you have selfish lovers who can only think of the pain they will feel if they were to ever be separated. They do not realize the danger they are putting their love in. If only Romeo and Juliet could have figured that one out.

Overall

This movie is mostly told from Ethan's perspective, and he is not a brooding, depressed, or obsessive male. He is an actual person, not a superhero. He gets mad at Lena and yells at her. He cries. He hides his feelings. He tries to act tough. He's a real guy! Thank you, Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, for creating a realistic fiction male character.

Because Ethan is real, the relationship between Ethan and Lena is real. Lena just wants to be normal, and acts normal. She doesn't want Ethan to enter into her world or make him one of them. She wants to keep him safe, and she wants to live in his world. They go on awkward dates. They make fun of each other. They fight. They make up. They are a real couple, not just a fluffy copy of what we wish our romance lives could be.

That is why this movie is worth watching over and over again.

3 out of 4 Moons