This is a teen-romance fantasy movie where a young man named Ethan Wate (played by Alden Ehrenreich) has repetitive dreams about the same mysterious young woman that he does not yet know, who is the character Lena Duchannes (played by Alice Englert). All Ethan wants to do is graduate high school and then leave the stifling small town as soon as possible to go off to college. That is until, the young woman of his dreams, Lena, shows up as a new student at his high school. When he recognizes her, as the girl from his dreams, he desperately wants to get to know her and learn more about her. But she lives in a big dark mansion with an eccentric recluse, a rich old man whose family founded the town, the character of Macon Ravenwood (played by Jeremy Irons).
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Ravenwood refuses to have anything to do with the local townspeople and rarely is seen outside of the big old mansion so the locals think he is an evil monster and make up all kinds of gossip about him. The kids in high school tease Lena about living with this old man and being part of the rich family that created the town. Lena reacts to this abuse from the other kids, who taunt her, by losing control of her special powers and blows out all the windows of the classroom in a huge explosion with her mental force of telekinesis, shocking all the students and the teacher in the room. Rather than scare Ethan off, this makes him even more curious about the girl.
Ethan follows Lena to the big dark mansion that is her home and boldly knocks on the door to introduce himself to Ravenwood. Ravenwood is surprised to see the boy has such courage because few would dare enter the premises of the property, much less have the nerve to knock on the door, so he invites Ethan in. Lena tries to dissuade him, but Ethan enters anyway. The old man Ravenwood does not appear to be the evil danger that the townspeople all think he is, instead he is rather polite, yet there is still an air of mystery about him.
Ethan and Lena fall in love. They sneak off for rendezvous in the woods near the big house and share their inner most feelings and secrets with each other. As Lena is nearing the age when she becomes an adult, she faces the forced situation where a choice about her future will be decided. She will either be able to use her special powers to go the way of good or be forced to follow a path towards evil as is determined by her fate on her eighteenth birthday. The other family members, some of which are evil are fighting to capture her to their side. Everyone, including Ravenwood tries to convince Lena that she needs to ignore Ethan and not drag him into this fight, but she cannot do this and neither can Ethan let her go, because the two of them are deeply in love. They even loved each other in a distant past life as well. There is a huge metaphysical battle inside the mansion that is witnessed by Ethan, as the family members fight over the fate of Lena. It is Lena's love of Ethan that finally saves her.
Best part of story, including ending:
This is a fantasy story of good versus evil and good wins in the end which is as it should be. The film is a bit creepy, but at the same time satisfying.
Best scene in story:
The scene when all the family members are using their special powers to fight against each other in the big mansion. The special effects of the metaphysical battle are really outstanding.
Opinion about the main character:
Ethan changes his idea of escaping from the small town as his highest priority, to saving the young woman from his dreams when he falls in love with her. That's cool.
