Beautiful Creatures

Just as the Harry Potter juggernaut gave rise to a slew of magical imitators, the Twilight saga is spawning its share of supernatural-romance wannabes. One of the first to hit screens is Beautiful Creatures, an adaptation of the young-adult novel by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, which throws good, evil, free will, true love and a centuries-old curse into the cauldron and stirs vigourously.

Small-town teenager Ethan (charming Alden Ehrenreich) is astonished when he actually meets the girl he's been dreaming about. Even more astonishing is that Lena (fiery, soulful Alice Englert) is a 'Caster', with nascent magical abilities that will manifest themselves as good or evil on her 16th birthday. As the big day approaches, all manner of relatives start crawling out of the woodwork, eager to sway Lena to their way of thinking. Will Ethan's true love save the day and maybe save Lena's soul as well?

Look, this movie is pretty nutty, and I liked it all the more for that. The story is all over the place, the characters' personalities change at the drop of a hat, the performances are wonderfully cartoonish and broad at times (you go, Emma Thompson). But Beautiful Creatures also has a weird, vibrant spring in its step, and it often strikes just the right balance between sincerity, sultriness and silliness. It's like a Tim Burton film before Tim Burton forgot how to make good films.

In cinemas now.