244, Beautiful Creatures

This movie really did sneak up on me - not knowing entirely what it was about, in my mind it was another attempt to recapture the Twilight fan base - focusing on Witches rather than Vampires & based in another small, back and beyond town - this time in the deep south of America (heavily linked to the Civil War which becomes a back drop for an aged old love story) and a family of Witches, quite poignant to their towns creation but in the same breath - outlawed by them as well. 

As mentioned above, this is another love story (even more comparable to Twilight) although this time around, we have a girl as the focus family member, 15 year old Lena Duchannes (Alice Englert) who is counting down the days until her 16th birthday where it will be decided via fate alone if she is to become a dark witch or as she hopes, stays on the path of light.

Enter our hapless hero Ethan, (Alden Ehrenreich) a popular kid among the god fearing community who has been dreaming about meeting Lena, long before they actually cross paths.  Lena is new to the area after moving in with Uncle Macon (Jeremy Irons) who hopes he can keep her pure and assist in the crossing over although her evil Mum & Sister (brilliantly played by Emma Thompson & Emma Rossum) rock up as dark witches themselves to try and ensure she follows the family line then, right in the middle is poor Ethan - totally love struck and hilariously controlled by all sides to turn this love story into as much a comedy as it is a romantic masterpiece..

I really enjoyed this film - there was something about Ethan's Southern charm that just made him instantly likable and in a town that's a few years behind the rest of the country - his innocence and naivety just make him fodder for the worldly experienced family of Ravenwoods & Duchannes that he is so bemused with.

In addition to Alice & Alden, there are also great performances from the rest of the cast too with Emma Thompson playing a particularly sexy role as Sarafine, Lena's Mum and Irons himself as the ever so debonair Lord of the Manor - with one of the best interior house designs seen since, well - Twilight!

The plot movies along quite quickly with a lovely little twist at the end and to be fair - its the closest thing that Twihards are going to get to their Bella & Edward ever again so hopefully - it wont disappoint the masses too much!

There are too many twists and turns in this move for me to lay them all out for you in this blog however its shouldnt be too hard to keep up with the story, even though it does jump around a bit in the middle.  If I were to go into much more detail I may accidently give the end away so to round off lets keep it simple. 

Its two hours of innocent fun and a 12A, which unlike The Hole is actually quite suitable and wont scare the younger viewers so in all fairness - quite a harmless, quirky little movie with a young cast of relative new comers and a few familiar faces to give it prowess.  I hope you enjoy it.