Beauty & The Beast (2017)
Rated PG
Starring Emma Watson, Dan Stevens, Luke Evans, Josh Gad, Kevin Kline, Hattie Morahan, Ewan McGregor, Ian McKellan, Emma Thompson
Directed by Bill Condon
The Story:
A prince (Stevens) who rejects the needs of an old beggar (Morahan) is cursed to life as a beast unless he can find love, and have someone fall in love with him despite his looks. With the chance of the spell being broken in time to stop the transformation from being complete, chance sends Belle (Watson) to the castle in search of her father (Kline) and then the race is on to see if these two will fall in love and break the spell.
Egads.
Where do I begin?
I consider the 1991 animated version to be one of Disney's very best movies they've ever made.
So I've tried to approach each of the Disney live action remakes with an open mind that they're taking a good movie, trying something new-ish with it, to varying results.
Maleficent - loved it. It was actually a different take on the Sleeping Beauty story and was quite enjoyable. Later efforts, like Cinderella offered no new take on the classic, and were downright boring. Even The Jungle Book, it started off okay, but when it began singing, I totally lost interest in the film and would never bother with it again.
Which leads us to Beauty & the Beast.
It's probably unfair of me to judge this film based on the animated classic, but it's hard not to when it follows nearly every beat of the story identically.
I have no idea how close/far it follows the Broadway musical, as I've never seen it.
And for much the same reason that I was worried about seeing the film version.
Can they do the story justice?
In a word: No.
Now if you've never, ever, ever never seen the animated movie, then you'll likely enjoy this film.
I'm happy for you.
The story itself is a great one.
And the songs, especially those that were in the original, are beautiful and very catchy.
Yet when transposed to this movie...
For me, it just didn't work.
Belle's opening number has some pauses in the song that just kill the flow of the song.
Nearly all of the songs are like that, close, but not quite catching the spirit and oomph that the original had.
The cast..
Luke Evans actually pulled off Gaston very well, and of the entire cast, I think he did the best job of making the character his own.
I suppose I might as well get the sexist label out right away:
Belle, whose name means beauty (says so, right in the song) is played by Emma Watson.
Yeah... so I'm going to go out on a limb here, and say that this casting was about as smart as casting Kristen Stewart as Snow White against Charlize Theron as the evil queen. Who's the fairest in the land?
Exactly.
But whatever, she's the star, but as I watch the movie I become painfully aware that her acting and emotions are rather stilted and wooden.
In one scene, where the Beast finally lets her go, what should be a face of relief, or happiness, or just about anything is conveyed with a look of anger. Or constipation. I'll let you decide.
Stevens does fine under the makeup (which is tremendous) as the Beast.
In fact, the whole movie is gorgeous, I will always give credit where it's due, and it's a beautiful movie to watch.
But again, I can't help but compare it to what came before, and this one comes up lacking.
Big time.
I liken it to having a delicious dinner, possibly the best you ever had.
Then going to another restaurant, or maybe a friend's house, or even trying it yourself.
All the ingredients are pretty much the same, or as close as you can muster.
And it's okay at the end, but it never does quite taste as good as the meal you're trying to recreate.
In the end, the more I watched this film, the more I wanted to turn it off and watch the animated version.
That leads me to a Final Grade:
