(BATB is the ultimate family film and
should be a sure-fire hit. Review by Patrick Compton – 7)
Hollywood continues to dip its wick into
the business of myth-making. This is the live-action version of the hugely
popular 1991 Disney animated musical with all the songs from that production,
plus a handful more.
The PC element is still there. Emma Watson
plays Belle as a feminist icon: a slightly nerdy, prim literary sort who yearns
for an intelligent mate to spark off in the library. Not surprisingly she longs
to escape her small-minded, provincial French village as well as her dumb
suitor Gaston (amusingly played by Luke Evans).
And, for the first time, there’s even a “gay moment” – which you’ll miss
if you blink – which has resulted in the movie being pulled in Malaysia and
given a prohibitive age restriction in Russia.
Beauty
and the Beast is, of course, almost as old as what
we like to call civilization. First written in 1740 by French novelist
Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont, the tale goes all the way back to the
classical myth of Cupid and Psyche and has been written, performed and filmed
on innumerable occasions.
Directed by Bill Condon (Dreamgirls), Disney doesn’t spare the
bucks in this lavish, shiny version. A budget of $160 million (a monstrous R2.3
billion) has bought Condon a veritable army of experts in the fields of special
effects, visual effects, production and costume design – and you can see it all
up on the glowing screen.
The plot is simple enough. The Beast began
life as a handsome but thoroughly flawed French prince who taxed his people
unmercifully to pay for his lavish lifestyle. An enchantress (Hattie Morahan)
duly turns him into a beast when he rejects her plea for shelter on a brutal
winter’s night. In addition, all his main courtiers are cursed into becoming
household objects with Ewan McGregor playing Lumiere (a candlestick), Ian
McKellen as Cogsworth (a clock), Emma Thompson as Mrs Potts (a teapot), Andra
McDonald as a wardrobe and Gugu Mbatha-Raw as a feather duster.
One day, Belle’s eccentric dad (Kevin
Kline) accidentally stumbles into the Beast’s lair and is first imprisoned and
then released when brave Belle volunteers to take her father’s place. The scene
is now set for a touch of horror, hijinks, and eventually high romance.
The Beast himself is played by Downton
Abbey’s Dan Stevens and it’s a familiar curiosity, at the end of the movie when
the prince becomes himself again, that the emergence of the pretty boy from his
beastly disguise is rather anticlimactic with many a commentator down the ages
crying, “Bring back the beast!”
It has to be said that the demure Watson
doesn’t exactly set the screen on fire, but she is not intended to be a glamour
puss or a black widow, so her girl-next-door performance is solidly
respectable.
One of the main themes of this fairytale,
of course, is that beauty isn’t skin deep: the beast must express what is in
his heart to get the beautiful girl to fall in love with him. Gaston, by
contrast, may be muscular, handsome and adventurous, but he’s no catch for
Belle because his inner self is so thoroughly rotten.
This is a massive production and Condon
manages to pull it all together with great efficiency. There’s plenty of
humour, particularly among the far from inanimate household artifacts with Ian
McKellen and Emma Thompson to the fore, while the songs from Alan Menken (who
is also responsible for the score), the late Howard Ashman, and Tim Rice are as
hummable as ever.
BATB is the ultimate family film and should
be a sure-fire hit.
Beauty
and the Beast will open locally mid-April
– Patrick Compton
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