Among our survival mechanisms is the belief held by easily 99% of the people in the world that looks are not everything. And this belief is working out pretty well. People focus on values such as loyalty, honesty, creativity, kindness, and other menial things like this to reconcile the fact they might end up with someone who is missing a tooth or features a facial mole.
Ironically, people who practice this belief--that it is what is on the inside that counts--live in constant fear that they are the only people in the world who see this. They think that while they manage to look away when their coworker has a lip sore most other people spend their lunch hours laughing in the restroom over it. And thus people adapt themselves and others to look as beautiful as can be simply to impress everyone else. And inside is a self-righteous feeling that they are the only ones who don't actually care about these things.
The makers of Beastly are attempting to retell a beloved story about a very beautiful lady falling for a man who's arrogance has made him appear less than human. Unfortunately, they cannot imagine that anyone would see a movie about someone who is actually ugly.
The "Beast" of this story is played by Alex Pettyfer. For those of you who do not know what he looks like, here is an image:
Ok, ok--maybe not the best casting choice. But, he had to look really good before he got cursed, right? Well, let's see what the modern-day wonders of make-up and CGI can do to make this guy look ugly.
Wait, that's the best they can do? I get that it looks like he fell down the stairs and got a bad tattoo, but that's not that terrible. At all. I mean, a wig and some make up will make him look pretty great. And even if he has to look like that, its a tragedy, but not a disability. No one is going to refuse to talk to him because of that.
In the movie, when the transformation occurs, "Beast"'s father decides to shut him away in the edge of the city and hire a blind tutor (Peter Krause) to teach him since there is nothing he could pay to hire a seeing-person to mentor THAT. "Beast" thinks this seems pretty logical. He only goes out of the house at night while wearing a large hoody. His maid (Lisa Gay Hamilton) and teacher try to comfort him, but never do they consider the fact that it is immoral to be paid to keep a pretty-normal looking kid hidden from society because of his lunatic father's obsession.
As with the timeless tale, the curse can be broken by the kiss of a true love. The time limit in this version is a year.
The story is far to fast-paced and lacks any depth (and uses phrases like "embrace the suck" to try and sound hip), but it is cute and features genuine emotion and interaction between its cast (Beauty is played by Vanessa Hudgens), with the exception of Mary-Kate Olsen, who hams everything up in the role of the witch. Unfortunately, Writer/Director Daniel Barnz (Phoebe in Wonderland), Producer Susan Cartsonis (What Women Want), and the entire crew end up insulting the fairy tale by revealing there lack of confidence in the story's value.
Beastly preaches that love is not based on looks, but maintains that no one would see a movie with actually ugly people.
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