Beastly Movie Review

These days, it is very hard to find a good romantic film. Vampires and wolves tend to dominate the romance genre without really pushing the romantic emotion. Then comes Beastly, a reimagining of the classic tale of Beauty and the Beast. Still, it doesn’t give out enough romance to catapult it off to love story greatness.

Beastly stars Alex Pettyfer, a vain young, good looking guy who gets cursed and becomes ugly. He will stay ugly unless someone tells him “I Love You.” The only catch is, he only has a year or he is permanently stuck as an ugly guy. Pettyfer does a good performance for both the vain and the changed young man. He does this with the help of a very unique facial and body disfiguration.

Vanessa Hudgens plays Lindy, the girl Hunter (Pettyfer) falls for. Hudgens portrays Lindy as a girl with a lot of baggage. She has a lot of problems and has a lot to deal with. Hudgens does this well. She shows us a girl with two faces, the one who wants to escape and the one trapped.

The main issue about the film is that the story is not well crafted. Yes it is based on Beauty and the Beast but they forgot to sculpt it so it would blend well with the real world. The story line is dragging and it doesn’t quite get everyone’s attention especially at the middle parts. Some of the romantic scenes lack emotions. Hudgens and Pettyfer don’t have that chemistry that really ignites the fires of the heart.

The film has its ups and downs. But even the romantic scenes can’t seem to salvage this film. The only thing keeping it up is the songs and the score. It carries the emotion of the film that the actors fail to do. The effects of the film are good but not great. Make up is done well really depicting an ugliness that no one would want.

Beastly is sort of a letdown. I was expecting it to be more but it was like Twilight. It tends to target teens instead of a broader audience. Through its ups and downs, I was still entertained. It is a film of pride and love with a twist. I give it 6 out of 10.