In Bill Eagles’s dark comedy of circumstance, two women form a sisterly bond after each suffers the violent abuse of her boyfriend. Dorothy (Susan Lynch from Waking Ned Devine), a strong and independent sort, eludes a maniacal rampage as she’s chased from train car to train car after pawning a bag of golf clubs. She then happens upon Petula (the comely Rachel Weisz), who’s being beaten to a pulp on the hood of a Range Rover. Dorothy responds with a steel rod, leaving the pair with a dead body and too many questions.

What ensues is a nightmarish litany of misogynists, including Dorothy’s heroin-addicted beau (Iain Glen) and a horny toad of a cop (Alex Norton). Contrived and overripe, Beautiful Creatures boasts slick, stunning visuals, but within each scene the score trumpets in ominously and jacks up the drama. The plot will recall Thelma & Louise, but that film’s heroines were multidimensional and sympathetic, whereas here the brainy broad and buxom babe are saddled with a psycho druggie and a fledgling crime boss when they can obviously do better. Why they don’t is frustrating and the film’s fault line.