Well, I finally have something fun and new to blog about! But, before I get to my review of the new film, Beastly, I want to make a brief commentary on the Oscars. The day after the Oscars, all anyone could talk about was how bad the two hosts were, mainly how bad James Franco was. It goes without saying that James Franco is an odd kid: he does odd things, he says odd things. One of the many reasons I love James Franco is because he is extremely strange and awkward. I find his oddity refreshing...and attractive! HOWEVER, it is because of how awkward he is that I anticipated his Oscars gig would not resonate with the majority of its audience...and I was right. Everyone Monday morning seemed so shocked at how "awful" both James and Anne were at hosting. I was not disappointed. Were Anne and James the greatest hosts ever? No, but I still managed to be entertained. I think people made much ado about nothing. The Academy Awards is a night to celebrate the movies and the people in them. Do not get me wrong, I live for stuff like the Oscars, but there is nothing about them that makes a lasting impact beyond those people in Hollywood. Anne and James are actors--they do not make a living from being show hosts! They are good at what they do and that is why the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences asked them to host. After all, James was up for Best Actor for his portrayal of Aron Ralston in 127 Hours. If people wanted a show host, they should have hired Bob Barker.
And now on to my review of Beastly...
First confession? I saw Beastly by myself. Now before you all start to say "oh, how pathetic," I have always wanted to see a film by myself. I have finally achieved something on my bucket list. AND, this was a great movie to see by myself. Don't have to recite a ton of jokes to people and laugh about it for hours on end, nor am I sobbing and just want to sob with someone else who knows why I am sobbing. It was an enjoyable hour and half. Okay, now really on to my actual review...
Beastly stars Alex Pettyfer and Vanessa Hudgens, with a little help from Mary-Kate Olsen and one of my faves, NEIL PATRICK HARRIS! (sorry for the all caps...I will continue calmly) Beastly is a modern take on the classic fairyt
ale, Beauty and the Beast. Similar to Clueless and Easy A, Beastly spins a classic story and puts it in a high school setting...however, although Beastly is fun, it is not smart like those two other movies.Pettyfer plays Kyle, the cliche guy in high school who has it all: money, popularity, and good looks. The problem? He knows what he has all too well, no thanks to his good-looking, absent news anchor for a father. Hudgens plays Lindy, a quiet and shy girl who is at Kyle's elite prep school on scholarship. It is not a coincidence that Kyle, having no sense of the world around him, meets Lindy after three years of being in the same school. He is immediately intrigued because, being the self-respecting girl that she is (yay, Lindy!), she does not much care about what Kyle has; and it is because Kyle is intrigued, the audience gets glimpses of a Kyle who is not a self-absorbed monster (turns out Lindy sees that too). Unfortunately, those glimpses of goodness are just that, glimpses.
Olsen's character, the "witch" in this story, truly sees Kyle for who he is and what he is: ugly on the inside. After being scorned by him, she turns the tables around casting a spell on him. He is finally as "aggressively attractive outside" as he is on the inside. Kyle has a year to find someone to truly love him for the curse to break and to regain his good looks.
Well, much like the Disney telling of Beauty and the Beast, Kyle is locked away in a castle of sorts: a brownstone over the bridge from Manhattan. Instead of a talking clock and candlestick? Kyle has a housekeeper (Zola, played by Lisa Gay Hamilton) and a tutor (a la Neil Patrick Harris, who plays Will), both with their own tragedies. It is only when Kyle is in his beastly state that he begins to realize how everyone saw him, and that's how Lindy's character truly captures his attention. A mishap here and a mishap there, Lindy ends up Kyle's captive. With the guidance of Zola and Will, Kyle finally begins to realize the man he can be and he wants to be, someone Lindy can love. Luckily for Kyle (who goes by Hunter once taking Lindy captive--after all, what would be the intrigue if she knew he was the "once hot" Kyle?!), Lindy sees this side of him all along despite his being ugly on the outside.
I'm not going to pull any punches. The rest of the story is much like its Disney counterpart, after all, that is the one most audiences know and love! If it is a spoiler-alert that the movie unfolds much the same way as any other version you might have seen, my apologies. However, because it is a movie geared at an older audience, its humor and elements of its storyline are also slightly more mature. Like any take on a classic, Beastly offers its own interesting twists.
With all of that said, I really enjoyed this movie. I have been wanting to see this flick since May and it was supposed to come out last July, but due the onslaught of other summer movies, the distributors thought it could not compete and so it was released today. I was hesitant about the movie at first: as a fan of the High School Musical trilogy, I never liked Vanessa Hudgens. What made me want to see this film? NPH, of course. But good news HSM but not Vanessa Hudgens fans: her voice is not high-pitched and obnoxious like Gabriella in this movie (so I am assuming in real life the same can be said?!), nor is she just running around and giggling all the time. Hudgens plays a smart girl who is not all about the glitz and glam. Most refreshing about Hudgens in this film is that unlike her HSM character who is supposed to be the nerd but is always well-dressed with perfect hair and makeup (not to mention Zac Efron on her arm), she looks like an average teen. NPH was lovely of course, but played a very different character from his alter-ego, Barney Stinson. And Pettyfer, who is the focus of the film I thought played his role well: in the beginning, he is very unlikable yet you know there is something there; slowly, his character evolves so that what you see on the outside is not reflective of what is on the inside. It does not hurt that he is an extremely attractive guy in the beginning and end, but because of the nature of the film, he cannot rest on his good looks (other than his great abs...those are out for show a lot of the film!).
As far as content is concerned (beyond the story itself), the movie did not go for the cheap laughs (not saying it was tremendously deep or anything), nor did it seek to impress its audience with a ton of special effects. It was just a good ole chick flick for the teeny-boppers and people like me who will always love that kind of stuff regardless of how good or bad it is. The overall flow of the story was good, but the end did come about rather rapidly.
Maybe I was not the most objective critic. After all, I already admitted I have been wanting to see this movie for quite some time (however, I suppose the same could be said for How Do You Know and I was totally disappointed with that one). I suppose this is what it all boils down to: I am a girl who is a sucker for the classic fairytale. And however unrealistic things may be, it is nice to escape for an hour or two into a story of romance and happy endings. Beastly won't be the best movie you see this year (probably nowhere close to the top ten or twenty), but I think you will find it an enjoyable one.
-Erin
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