The critics do not like this movie. They are saying very mean things about it. Now, I know a thing or two about trashing a movie (see most of my reviews), so my refusal to do so here is not because I’m not up to it. I just think this is a sweet movie, that’s all. Or, maybe my opinion differs from the critics’ opinions because I am asking different questions than they are.
I’m not looking at filmmaking, per se. I’m looking at storytelling, at take-away value, at possible talking points. I’m evaluating the movie to see whether, on balance, it has an engaging plot, decent character development, reasonably well-written dialogue, and whether there are any fatal flaws.
Battle: LA has the fatal flaw that there isn’t a traffic jam when America’s second largest city is being evacuated. Rango’s fatal flaw is that it is aggressively religiously offensive. The Green Hornet’s fatal flaw is that murder is committed by the lead character, but never addressed. Sanctum’s fatal flaw is that there are mercy killings. Nutcracker in 3D…well, let’s not get started on that disaster (Who sits around thinking, “Let’s do Tchaikovsky as a doll-based Holocaust Musical”?).
Happily, Beastly doesn’t have any fatal flaws. I went expecting to have to bungee cord myself to my seat to keep from fleeing a tedious, insipid teen-hormone flick. My expectations were in error. No bungee cords necessary.
Beastly is actually a nice re-telling of the fairy tale. In fact, I’d say that, if one were interested in teaching a kid a thing or two about acceptance, tolerance, and plain old civility, this is better than the Disney version. That’s because the Disney version is just a fairy tale, while Beastly is where we live.
We all recognize the BMOC who trades on his looks, the Arm-Candy Barbie who accompanies him, the sycophantic sidekick who hates himself because he took the syco-kick job in the first place, and the outcast social wannabe who can’t break into high school normalcy because her family’s a mess.
Because we know these people (and can probably identify with one of them), we are touched when we realize why Kyle (BMOC) does what he does. Instantly, we’re on his side. The very moment we realize who the Proto-Creep is, we hope the best for Kyle.
Kendra the Witch (Mary-Kate Olsen in extremely high heels) is restrained in her righteous judgment on Kyle, who has deeply wronged her. He deserves what he gets. This doesn’t lessen our rooting for him any more than our rooting for him lessens the fact that he keeps deserving his fate because he keeps not learning his lesson until it’s almost too late.
You know how the story goes. But just because the plot is the same (and even some of the lines) doesn’t mean it’s the same movie. This is a completely different movie than the Belle-Beast version for a number of reasons, probably the most important of which is this: Belle falls in love with a Buffalo.
Kyle, on the other hand, is a deeply-human young man throughout. Belle sees Beast as the Beast he is, whereas Lindy sees Kyle’s humanity at the same time that she sees his woundedness. Belle does not know that Beast is an enchanted Prince who can be rescued, but Lindy knows right off that her acceptance of Kyle releases him from himself, his fears, his loneliness. And, whereas the Disney film is about Belle, this movie is about Kyle.
Not to go on and on, but this is a good film for teenagers. They’ll get it. Especially if you don’t go all heavy-handed moralist on them afterwards. Avoid stupid parenting by not asking, “So, don’t you see how this means you should be kinder to Ophelia?” The morals here are so obvious, there probably isn’t any need for any follow-up whatever.
Delightful performances by Neil Patrick Harris as Kyle’s blind tutor and Lisa Gay Hamilton as the housekeeper, topped off by a sweet frosting-on-the-cake ending.
There’s quite a bit of sweet and wonderful here. Plus, no vampires or werewolves.
(Language: a few words. Skin: one scene where sycophant is kissing a girl’s chest—chest, not breast—but it’s seen as trashy.)