Reworking a classic: Beauty and the Beast

Beastly (2011)
Certified: PG
Duration: 95 minutes
Directed by: Daniel Barnz
Starring: Alex Pettyfer, Vanessa Hudgens, Mary-Kate Olsen, Neil Patrick Harris, Lisa Gay Hamilton, Peter Krause, Dakota Johnson, Erik Knudsen and Regina King
KRS release

This is yet another of Hollywood’s recent love affairs with the reworking of classic fairy tales. Beastly works where Red Riding Hood bombs; mainly due to it being an actual reworking which does not get lost in overcooked plot complications.

This adaptation of Alex Flinn’s 2007 novel does not disguise itself as being an overtly artistic cinema making, instead it is clearly targetting teens – girls in particular. This is evident from its choice of female stars – Vanessa Hudgens of High School Musical fame and Mary Kate Olsen. In this reworking of the classic tale of Beauty and the Beast, Alex Pettyfer plays the super handsome and super egotistic Kyle Kingston. He is adored at the private Manhattan school which he attends, but his running for school president has brought out the worst in him. He treats Lindy Taylor (Vanessa Hudgens) badly and sees Kendra (Mary Kate Olsen) as being ugly. He does not know that Kendra is a witch and places a curse on him.

Kyle ends up losing all his good looks: he is disfigured, bald, veins visible to everyone. To become normal again he has to find someone who loves him for who he is and not for his money or for what he could be. Rob (Peter Krause) Kyle’s father, from whom he got his attitude and his revulsion for ugliness cannot stand him anymore and so arranges for him to live in seclusion. For company he has his housekeeper, Zola (Lisa Gay Hamilton) and a blind tutor Will (Neil Patrick Harris). Kyle roams around at night wearing a hood and soon finds himself drawn to Lindy. At one point he ends up saving her and her dad. Lindy starts staying with him but he does not reveal his real name, nor does he let her see him. Soon Lindy starts getting close to him, little realising that he is the same person who had treated her so contemptuously.

Daniel Barnz directs in a workman-like manner, laying out the story without overdoing the obvious elements. The film is given life through the effort that the teen stars place in the movie with Vanessa Hudgens starting to emerge as quite the actress. In 2010’s Bandslam she had already started to show this, as too in the recent Sucker Punch, but here she really shows off that she can be more than just a pretty face. She really makes a convincing Beauty to Alex Pettyfer’s self-worshipping Beast. While the film is given a chance of some light humour through Neil Patrick Harris’s turn as the blind tutor.

The prosthetic work done on Alex Pettyfer is well done. He is made to look beastly but it serves more to make the teen girl audience sorry for him. He is never so ugly that the girls would not attempt to save him and release the inner beauty that lies under the ravaged skin.

With Beastly it is the packaging that is different, all to the tune of indie pop, the likes of Natalia Kills and Marching Band. The film and fairy tale’s message is obvious – beauty is only skin deep which is a message as old as time.