Welcome to The Morning After, where I share with you what I’ve seen over the past week either in film or television. On the film side, if I have written a full length review already, I will post a link to that review. Otherwise, I’ll give a brief snippet of my thoughts on the film with a full review to follow at some point later. For television shows, seasons and what not, I’ll post individual comments here about each of them as I see fit.

So, here is what I watched this past week:

Beautiful Creatures

Anytime Disney touches a property, I go in with reservations. Their studio policy seems to be to present sanitized films that can be seen by many, but that approach typically waters down a story so far that it’s almost derivative. Beautiful Creatures sticks closely to that style without seeming dumbed down by it.

The story revolves around a High School student disenchanted with his life who falls in love with the new girl in school who comes form a family of recluses who are thought to be witches. The truth is that she is one and on her 17th birthday, she will be claimed by her powers for the light or the dark as two forces are struggling to bring her in one side or the other.

The two leads, Alden Ehrenreich and Alice Englert work well together, but it’s the roguish Ehrenreich who comes off the better. Ehrenreich has strong potential to become a leading man in the future, but Englert will be lucky to strike out beyond this film. In support of these young thespians, three Oscar-nominated actors (two of them winners) bring some needed gravitas to the film. Jeremy Irons plays Englert’s uncle whose attempts to atone for his dark past leads him to protect his niece. Viola Davis plays Ehrenreich’s house maid who protects him from the magical forces that threaten him. And Emma Thompson plays the nosy religious zealot of the town whose attempts to castigate Englert and her family form part of a scheme that reveals itself in the second third of the film.

The film isn’t based on great literature, but director Richard LaGravanese adds a strong eye for detail and composition to the film, making for an engaging if sometimes lightly deep narrative. It won’t appeal to everyone, but for what it is, it’s quite entertaining.