Title: Beautiful Creatures (12)
Year: 2013
Running Time: 118 minutes
Director: Richard LaGravenese
Cast: Alice Englert (Lena Duchannes), Viola Davis (Amma), Emma Thompson (Sarafine), Alden Ehrenreich (Ethan Wate)
Notes: None
Rating: 8
Thoughts: Ethan wants to escape his life in the South and meets the mysterious Lena.
They then both discover much about their family history in a tale that weaves its way through magic.
The two teenage leads are very strong and utterly believable as a number of well-known actors create a backdrop for them. They all smoothly help create the subtle magical world that exists in the film.
The story is strong although I am not familiar with the source material so can't really comment on the adaptation. But despite not having much action it keeps a good narrative pace.
There's some nice play on the ideas of good and bad magic, and the very simple effects make it work all the better, enhancing the feel of it all being quite natural. Overall this is just a very nice story told well.