I've been waiting with stifled anticipation for the last two years for Disney's live-action reimagining of one of it's most classic cinematic masterpieces Beauty and The Beast (1991), to come to theaters. Having gotten the privilege to see it on opening night with my mother and father, I found myself once more immersed into a world of fantasy and childhood nostalgia. The film boasts an incredibly talented cast and the script by Evan Spiliotopoulos and Stephen Chbosky hits all the old story marks, while even finding the time to create new moments for us to treasure forever: if you've listened to the new soundtrack, you'll find the pun in that sentence. The film is not altogether perfect, nor does it in any way surpass its timeless animated predecessor. It at times falters, unsure of where it should lie, somewhere between a childhood fairytale and an adult progressive message about the changing times. In my opinion, it could've done both with a far better tonal balance had it not been so self-conscious. I shall split this review up into several subsections, similar to the format of my review for the Blair Witch (2016).
The Cast
The formidable ensemble of this film is one not to be undervalued. Emma Watson, Dan Stevens, Emma Thompson, Ewan McGregor amongst many others breathe life into these roles we've so desperately missed since the 1990s. An important note to also make early on in this review is that everyone in this film can sing. Emma's voice ironically may be the weakest among the group, but it's light and wilting and appropriate for the delicate, yet willful character she portrays. In fact, let's talk about Ms Watson's performance and get it out of the way. I am sad to report that I personally found her lacking in this lead role, not necessarily in talent as much as execution. In several key scenes, Watson comes up short of anything resembling emotional resonance. As the Beast begins to beguile her with his charm and hidden depth, she seems to be going through the motions rather than experiencing an actual transformation of comprehension and insight. When she tells the dying Beast lying in her arms that she loves him, her face restrains instead of succumbing to heartache as it so should. Her saving grace comes in a newly added subplot in which she and the Beast visit her former childhood home in Paris to discover what happened to her mother. Watson's reaction to the sacrifices Belle's parent's made for her feels raw, real and even frighteningly relatable to anyone whose parents have suffered a minute to spare their child a lifetime. Opposite Watson, Dan Stevens puts on a formidable and dashing performance as The Beast. The script opens up his character to new opportunities like Watson's, but Stevens seems to take more chances with his freedom. He is menacing when needed and surprisingly vulnerable and endearing when least expected. He handles his new solo Evermore with aplomb and possesses the vigor of a true stage performer. Gugu Mbatha - Raw is wasted unfortunately in the role of the maid turned feather duster, Plumette. An accomplished singer and actress should have more to do than fly around as a bird and put on a ludicrous French accent while spitting out a few lines of dialogue here and there. She starred in the film Belle (2013) for heaven sakes! The same cannot be said for Audra McDonald, who of course is given an expanded supporting role and plenty of opportunities to flex her unquestionably magnificent vocal cords. Josh Gad is memorable as Le Fou, but the controversial sexuality of his character comes off more as a cheap highlighted stereotype than a cinematic breakthrough, nice try Disney. The rest of the cast round out their roles nicely, bringing relatively the same amount of energy to the characters as there was in the 1991 animated feature.
The Soundtrack
What is a musical without good music? The answer is the abomination that is From Justin to Kelly (2003). Luckily, Beauty and The Beast had the clarity of mind enough to bring back Alan Menken and Time Rice as composers and producers, as well as utilize some unused material from the late great Howard Ashman. The music to Beauty and The Beast should whisk the audience away into a magical world of love and adventure. The songs on the new soundtrack do whisk the audience away, though sometimes it is only with a light breeze. The opening song "Belle" for example comes off as underwhelming and seriously lacking in the boisterous energy the original had given life to. "Be Our Guest" is given dazzling new effects and choreography, to much joyous, if not epileptic-like effect. The title song (my favorite song of the original) is given due justice by the incomparable Emma Thompson, who sustains a cockney British accent without faltering a note or missing a beat. Her rendition of the title song is as enchanting and passionate as her dear friend Angela Lansbury had sung it before her. The new songs fair well, though they are not exactly on par with the gems of the original. They are just good enough to be set beside these other timeless classics. The best of the three new additions is "How Does A Moment Last Forever" sung by various characters throughout the film and finally in its entirety in the film's credits by Celine Dion. This song echoes the Disney of the past decade, decadent, universal and engrossing. Some may argue it is trying too hard, but I believe it tries just enough. Overall the soundtrack does not surpass the original but breathes a fresh perspective on these timely treasured tunes of old. You'll still have a pip in your step and a song in your heart, even if you may want to regurgitate it after a few listens.
The Plot
Director Bill Condon and his competent screenwriters help flesh out this tale as old as time into something even more substantial and cinematically pleasurable. They add a touch of logic, which may seem absurd for a fairytale, but is actually a welcomed inclusion here as it raises the stakes for many of the characters. The curse the Enchantress puts on the castle extends to the village itself, wiping away all memories of the castle and its inhabitants from their minds. This explains why the villagers are seemingly ignorant of a castle so close by and give the servants in the castle a more grounded and heartbreaking backstory, that their loved ones have genuinely forgotten them. The film paces well enough, giving Belle and The Beast an ample amount of time to get to know one another and fall in love for real, though I wish the first act spent more time on The Beast's more unsavory authoritarian behavior. The relationship with him and his servants is still an unclear one in this adaptation. In one moment they feel comfortable standing up to him, in another, they're frightened out of their minds. The boundaries are muddled. The rest of the plot goes along pretty much the same as the original with story beats either being extended or short-tailed in favor of something more innovative or relevant to today's times. This is very evident in Belle's feminist stances in the first act, such as her invention of the washing machine contraption so she can read in peace. The all-important ballroom sequence is as stunning in live-action, as it was in the revolutionary animation done over a decade before. It is a true moment of solidification of mutual attraction between two living beings, an affirmation of love and a promise of dedication, all executed in the form of a romantic candlelight waltz. The film is particularly grim in its climax, giving us a disturbing idea of what unhappily-ever -after looks like. The plot is nuanced enough to be considered new but does not divert enough from the source work to be regarded as a full out reinvention of the story itself. It is familiar and exciting in many of the right ways, and forgivable enough for its transgressions by making up for them with required aesthetic gloss and narrative aptitude.
A remake and a reimagining are distinctions that I believe must begin to take greater significance in regards to the cinematic arts. The word remake is becoming far too polluted and even vulgar when taken into many contexts by today's standards. It sounds reductive and ill-conceived. A reimagining is really what this film is, taking a well-known story and giving it a freshly concocted update without losing or devaluing what made it so invaluable in the first place. This new 2017 film does not disgrace the original, nor does it supersede it. Instead, it does what any remake or reimagining should honestly do; it honors it. Disney should always keep in mind when translating their larger than life stories into the real world that they must not lose the spirit of the original. Still, it also simultaneously has an obligation to build upon the source material's themes and create a memorable experience all anew for the audience. A film like this should leave the audiences with a conflicted, yet satisfying feeling in their hearts. A feeling that could only be described as "bittersweet and strange."
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