Beautiful Creatures

The leads are both appealing, and their romance is refreshingly sweet and tender -- as opposed to obsessive and controlling, as is so common in the genre. Although the Romeo and Juliet-like romance between young Ethan and Lena is the heart of Beautiful Creatures, this is a movie in which the grown-up characters have all the fun. Unlike Twilight or The Hunger Games, where the adults stay in the background, Irons, Viola Davis (Ammah, the town librarian), and Emma Thompson (town bigot Mrs. Lincoln) are enough reason for parents to accompany their teen daughters to the theater. Thompson and Irons are deliciously campy as they chew up the scenery, while Davis -- as always -- plays a sage and morally infallible mentor.

That said, devoted book fans hoping for a super-faithful adaptation are out of luck; writer-director Richard LaGravenese has taken considerable liberties to streamline the nearly 600-page novel into a two-hour film that leaves you wondering what will happen next. But he's kept the overall themes and (most) major characters -- including the lush, Southern setting with its oppressive heat and even more oppressive attitudes. The end doesn't provide a satisfying closure, so if another great cast could be summoned, a sequel wouldn't be unwelcome.