Review of Beautiful Creatures (2000) by Marischa B — 15 Nov 2010

Try-hard film noir that is not unwatchable, but doesn't quite fulfil its promises of black humour and quirky unpredictability. There are laughs at times, but they come courtesy of that most simplistic of methods: cross-linking back to previous gags or plot references, so that the viewer and director can share a little in-joke and a double entendre or two, at the expense of the characters. A set of golf clubs, some homemade anal-sex porn and an acrylic paint-dyed dog feature heavily in all this cross-referencing. It's mildly amusing, sure, but hardly brilliant or incisively witty.

The film has no positive or endearing male characters: the two boyfriends are violent woman-beaters, the businessman Ronnie is brutal, paranoid and greedy, the detective is bent and sexually-driven. Even a minor male character, a young service-station attendant, is hooked on bondage magazines. No effort is spared to make the two female characters seem redeeming or justified as they lie, murder and extort their way through the film. Oh yes, they were battered, exploited and manipulated by their paramours, long-term sufferers of 'victim syndrome' we can accept that; but that just makes the core plot of the film - their rebellion and violent revenge against male dominance - to be not only implausible but also equally immoral.

A film panned by the critics, not completely fairly, Beautiful Creatures - or perhaps its promoters - just fell into the trap of trying to be something that it's not, and promising more than it delivered: it ain't Tarantino or 'Thelma and Louise' or 'Death Wish for Feminists', nor is it great comedic farce. But it doesn't deserve its low rating on IMDb (5.7 at the time of writing) and is worth a look.