|
Beautiful
Creatures
|
 |
Release
Date: January 19th 2001
Distributor: Buena Vista International
Certificate: 15
Starring: Susan Lynch, Iain Glen,
Jake D'Arcy, Rachel Weisz, Tom Mannion
Director: Bill
Eagles
Running Time:
86
mins
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| Petula
(Rachel Weisz) and Dorothy (Susan Lynch) are two friends who both find themselves
in dysfunctional and violent relationships, but find support and solace
in one another's company. One day though, things just get a little out of
hand when Petula finds herself in the bad-books of her nasty boyfriend,
Brian (Tom Marrion) and on the verge of receiving a severe beating. Along
comes Dorothy to the rescue, with her trusty hound, Pluto and a handy piece
of scaffolding, but it's all well-and-good defending her best friend, but
it's another matter killing the bloke. So what do you do? |
| Neither
of them fancies a spell in prison, even if it does serve him right, so they
concoct a kidnapping scheme, by which they can dispose of the corpse and
allay any suspicion that may arise from his sudden disappearance. Popping
one of his fingers in a plastic bag and writing a ransom note for pound;1million
they hope to get away with the crime, but that was before they counted on
a dodgy detective (Alex Norton) sticking his suspicious nose in. And just
to make things really difficult, Dorothy's abusive ex, Tony (Iain Glen)
turns up and puts his own spanner in the works. |
| It's
difficult to know what sort of movie Bill Eagles was trying to make here,
but what we end up with is something of a jumbled mishmash of styles and
genres. If you can imagine a poor man's 'Thelma and Louise' mixed with
'Bound'. Then add a bit of 'Carry On', sprinkle in some of the humour of
'Lock, Stock …' and ice it over with some of the so-called gross-out
humour of movies such as 'American Pie' and 'Road Movie' and you'll have
some sort of idea about what it's like … sort of |
The
humour here is very dark. Maybe too dark for most people to appreciate and
this is probably where the movie really falls down hard, because it is funny,
but in a sick, twisted, surreal sort of way. Most of writer Simon Donald's
work so far has been for TV and it shows and although he did a good job
last year with his post WWI family drama, 'My Life So Far', his grasp of
the thriller/crime drama leaves something to be desired.
Definitely worth a look when it comes out on video, but it is asking a bit
too much to fork out your hard-earned cash on this offering when there are
better low budget British movies out at the moment, such as 'The Criminal'
and 'Sexy Beast'.
BY DARRELL FINN |
