Beautiful Creatures wants to be a coming-of-age love story wrapped in magic and a Southern Gothic setting. It mostly succeeds at being a coming-of-age story. The magic, less so. The film, directed by Richard LaGravenese from his own screenplay, adapts the 2009 novel by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl and tries to build a world where destiny, destiny and destiny all matter. It mostly succeeds at world-building, less so at making that world feel dangerous.
The film opens with Ethan Wate, played by Alden Ehrenreich, waking from a recurring dream about a girl named Lena Duchannes, played by Alice Englert. Ethan despairs of his small-town life in Gatlin, South Carolina, and dreams of leaving for college. On his first day of junior year, Lena arrives in town. She resembles the girl in his dreams, and the other students gossip about her reclusive uncle, Macon Ravenwood, played by Jeremy Irons, and suggest that Lena’s family are devil worshippers.
The film establishes its central premise early: on Lena’s 16th birthday, she will make a choice that will determine whether she is good or evil. This choice affects her relationship with Ethan forever. It sounds heavy. It plays as a setup for a series of plot points rather than a genuine threat.
Trailer, via Rotten Tomatoes Trailers.
Gatlin, South Carolina
Gatlin is the kind of small Southern town where everyone knows everyone else’s business and the windows shatter when someone is upset. The film spends time establishing the town’s atmosphere, and it works. Savannah Snow, played by Tiffany Boone, and Emily Asher, played by Zoey Deutch, are Ethan’s friends, and their reactions to Lena set the film’s tone. The town’s suspicion of Lena is treated with a mix of fear and curiosity, and the film does a decent job of keeping that tension alive.
The film is at its strongest when it leans into the small-town dynamics. Ethan’s despair at his life is specific and relatable. His desire to leave Gatlin is not just about escape; it’s about the sense that his life is being shaped by forces he can’t control. The film captures that feeling well, even if the delivery is often awkward.
Lena’s Family and the Casters
Lena’s family is the heart of the film’s fantasy elements. Her uncle Macon Ravenwood, played by Jeremy Irons, disapproves of their relationship and conspires with Amma Treadeau, played by Viola Davis, to separate them. Lena tells Ethan that she and her family are “casters” — a term for people who can perform spells — and that her true nature will reveal itself on her 16th birthday toward either the light or the dark.
The film introduces Ridley Duchannes, played by Emmy Rossum, and Lena’s mother, Sarafine, played by Emma Thompson. Sarafine did not raise Lena and has possessed the mother of Ethan’s friend Link, Mrs. Lincoln. Sarafine wants Lena to use her power to purge the Earth of mortals and leave just casters.
This setup is the film’s central conflict. It’s a simple premise: two dark casters pushing Lena toward the dark. But the film never makes that threat feel urgent. The film is more interested in Lena and Ethan’s relationship than in the cosmic stakes of her choice.
Bonding Over the Locket
The film’s central romantic device is a locket that Ethan finds at Greenbriar. Both Lena and Ethan touch the locket, which triggers a shared flashback to the American Civil War. They are the descendants of the caster Genevieve Duchannes and the mortal Confederate soldier Ethan Carter Wate, who were in love. Ethan died in battle, and Genevieve died afterward.
This flashback is meant to ground the modern romance in a larger history. It works on a conceptual level. On screen, it feels like a convenience. The film has spent so much time setting up the locket as a magical object that the reveal feels like a shrug.
Dark secrets will come to light.
That’s the film’s tagline. It’s a fair summary of what the film is actually about: Ethan and Lena’s secrets coming to light. The film is less interested in the darkness of its title than in the quiet drama of two teenagers who are falling in love.
The Performances
The cast is uniformly competent, which is not the same as uniformly good. Alden Ehrenreich is earnest, and Alice Englert, who was 13 years old when she played Lena, sells the character’s isolation. Jeremy Irons plays Macon Ravenwood with a weary authority, and Viola Davis delivers Amma’s scenes with the kind of presence that elevates any scene she’s in.
The film’s supporting cast is a highlight. Thomas Mann plays Wesley “Link” Lincoln, and his scenes with Ethan are some of the film’s best. Emma Thompson, Eileen Atkins and Margo Martindale round out the extended Duchannes family with varying degrees of menace. Rachel Brosnahan plays Genevieve Duchannes in the flashback scenes, and her performance is a small but effective anchor for the film’s central romance.
Where the Film Falls Short
The film’s biggest problem is pacing. At 124 minutes, it’s a modest runtime, but the story feels overstuffed. The film introduces too many characters, too many families, too many magical systems, and the central conflict of Lena’s 16th birthday never feels immediate. The film tells you about the conflict, but it doesn’t make you feel it.
The film also has a tendency to explain rather than show. When Lena explains to Ethan what a caster is, the film could have let their actions demonstrate the concept. Instead, it leans on exposition. This is a film that trusts its audience to watch rather than to read.
The Verdict on Beautiful Creatures
Beautiful Creatures is a film that is more successful as a small-town drama than as a fantasy epic. It has a strong cast, a decent setting, and a premise that could have been something. But the film never fully commits to its own mythology, and it spends more time explaining the rules than it does making them feel consequential.
The film is a mixed bag, and its critical reception reflected that. It received mixed reviews from critics and grossed only $60.1 million worldwide against its $60 million budget. The film’s failure at the box office is not surprising. It’s a film that is too small to feel epic and too fantastical to feel grounded.
Beautiful Creatures is a film that is worth seeing for its performances and its setting. It is not a film that rewards repeat viewing. The film’s flaws are structural and persistent, and they outweigh its strengths.
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