"Lena, you're a miracle. Why would you ever want to be normal?" I do not own the copyright for this image |
As most
young-adults novels go there is the main character Ethan Wate, (Alden
Ehrenreich) a young, independent free thinker who can’t wait venture past the
town border to college and escapes the mediocrity of his small town by reading
every banned book he can get his hands on, including Kurt Vonnegut and Ayn
Rand’s The Fountainhead, which shows
the power of knowledge can lead anyone to see the world beyond what we believe
it to be.
His
obstacle to obtaining that freedom is the fascination with the new girl in
town, Lena Duchannes (Alice Englert) who’s living with her uncle and the town’s
shut in, Macon Ravenwood (Jeremy Irons).
With almost laughable southern accents and typical hatred for the
‘outsider’ everyone in the town is ready to kick Lena out for being associated
with Macon, who they believe is a devil worshiper. To further the plot along
strange things with the weather and at school happen once Lena arrives and its
Ethan’s curiosity of this mysterious girl that propels you into this life of
danger, secrets and life changing decisions. Basically, every teen goes through
that awkward stage of trying to figure out who they are but this book series
made into movie takes it to the supernatural level.
The acting
was well done, I really enjoyed the main characters and their interactions, the
chemistry was there and the build up on the relationship between Lena and Ethan
is just right, especially when she exposes her world to him and all the secrets
it entails. The scenes that were centered around magic and powers were done
tastefully and not as overly stereotypical like a Harry Potter movie with wands and such. Power comes from within the
person and their energy of anger, stress, or grief, etc. and causes a reaction
and it is a refreshing change in scenery regarding magic in storylines.
The
storyline starts off innocent enough but there are enough twists near the
second half of the film to keep you intrigued and wondering what will the end
result be and it even shocked me! What bothered me the most was the editing.
One moment you can be in the library with Ethan and Lena and the next they are
walking away from her car in the middle of the road fighting. It took me out of
the moment and that wasn’t the first time I noticed it throughout the film, at
least three times. As much as the editing could have been sharper overall the
screenplay writer and director Richard LaGravenese did a great job making this
magical teen novel come to life.
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