Movie Reviews and Ratings

NY Comic Con Coverage: ‘Beautiful Creatures’

The next movie by director Richard LaGravenese nominated for an Oscar for ‘The Fisher King’ and ‘P.S. I Love You’ is titled ‘Beautiful Creatures’ and will open in theaters February 13, 2013. This film is based on the book by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl which is the first part of a series of books for young adults called ‘ Caster Chronicles’; The New York Times called one of the bestselling fantasy novels for young adults. This series of novels is made up of four books: Beautiful Creatures, Beautiful Darkness, Beautiful Chaos and Beautiful Redemption, this last one will be available to the public in a week. The movie, which is based on the book by the same title will be distributed by Warner Bros Pictures.  

This supernatural love story takes place in Gatilin South Carolina, where we meet the love struck couple: Ethan (Alden Ehrenreich) a young man who wants to escape his small town, and Lena (Alice Englert) a mysterious girl. They unite to uncover dark secrets about their families, their history and their town.

The main actors from the movie are: Alden Ehrenreich, Alice Englert, Jeremy Irons winner of an Academy Award, Viola Davis Oscar nominee, Emmy Rossum, Thomas Mann, Emma Thompson Oscar winner and Zoey Deutch.

Alden Ehrenreich, Emmy Rossum, Thomas Mann, Zoey Deutch and director Richard LaGravenese were in New York Comic Con this past weekend to promote their movie. The novel’s writers were there as well to express their enthusiasm on seeing their work on the big screen. A teaser was shown where you could see this mix of magic, drama and special effects. The cast commented on the movie and their experience being a part of it.

They all agreed that the director didn’t try to capture how each teenager is around the world, because that would be impossible, which allowed him to treat them like real characters without trying to make them be teenagers that already exist. They clarified that the film doesn’t only take place in the present, there are flashbacks to show that the characters have existed for centuries, therefore the Romeo and Juliet love story shows that they’ve been around. To this the director stated that for him certain characters never go out of style, such as characters that are intelligent, witty and charismatic because they last for centuries and this is how he created this characters, this way they are not only of this culture but part of all of them. Most of all they suggested for the public to remember this is a human story, it’s not a supernatural story like people assume it will be, it feels very real.

Each actor told a short story as to how they prepared for their roles:

Alden Ehrenreich who studied in Argentina for a year and plays the “Romeo” of this story, Ethan, said: to prepare for this I only had to think of our location, and I would ask myself who my character was, to understand the context of his family and understand their interactions. I would try to understand how they felt about one another. What I liked is that I didn’t have to think about it much; I just had to use my instincts. I had a dialect coach, which helped me a lot.

Zoey Deutch who speaks a little Spanish and will play the character of Emily Asher, talking about her role said: what helped me a lot was being able to change my appearance and hair color, things that made me feel different. This character is so wide and that helped me understand her. For example, I’m Jewish and she’s Christian so I went to different churches and watched many videos and tried to have the accent, I wanted it to be different, a southern manipulating accent; because usually southern accents are so nice and fun to listen to and I wanted to change it.

Thomas Mann who will play Link gave a very sincere answer: I prepared for my character remembering that I couldn’t just use a southern accent, but I had to feel like they do to understand where they came from, their customs, habits and that environment they were brought up in. In the movie they don’t try to use popculture like Twitter or Facebook, so it feels timeless. I learned some southern sayings and they let me re-write some of my lines so I could use them.

Lastly, Emmy Rossum who will be the provocative Ridley Duchanness said: My character is always showing off and looiking for attention and she has some moments were you can see her vulnerability. I had to think how does she walk, strut, the tone of voice she uses when she’s trying to manipulate someone, that honey, southern sugary voice; I wanted to see how far I could go with it and sometimes Richard would say “Ok, that’s enough”. It was an exercise to be over the top, self-centered and to use my sexuality. I had a lot of fun and my expectation is that this movie is going to be great.

In the meantime we can enjoy the trailer, which shows us more about this love story surrounded by mystery and supernatural powers.