Watson the Belle of the ball
Enchanting live-action remake of tale as old as time
(8) BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. Directed by: Bill Condon. Starring: Emma Watson, Dan Stevens, Luke Evans, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Josh Gad, Ian McKellen, Emma Thompson, Ewan McGregor, Stanley Tucci, Kevin Kline. Reviewed by: Tim Robey.
TWENTY-SIX years ago – yes, yikes – Beauty and the Beast rolled out the red carpet for a second golden age of Disney. It was the first animated film ever to be nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, and won, quite rightly, for Alan Menken’s score and one of the three nominated songs.
It’s the music that makes it particularly special – and appreciating that is entirely the point of the live-action remake. It’s hard to imagine a case for this film’s existence without the songs.
Easily the best move of Bill Condon’s generous update is to make an out-an-out, bells-and-whistles musical: something none of Disney’s other refurbishments of its back catalogue lately, from Maleficent through Cinderella and The Jungle Book, have quite had the gumption to attempt.
Menken’s score, and the evergreen lyrics of Howard Ashman – the genius of his art who died before he could even see the original film – are the pulse, the purpose and headline draw.
What’s changed? A running time that’s 45 minutes longer than before allows scope for expansion, including three new Menken songs, which hit character beats and fill in backstory elegantly enough.
A prologue now tells us of the Prince (a powdered Dan Stevens, formerly of Downton Abbey), the curse, and the red rose with its dropping petals; there’s more later on Belle’s dead mama, and a deeper relationship with her dad (Kevin Kline) too.
But the core of the story is blissfully intact. It’s fitting, for a tale about gradually discovering inner beauty, that the Beast is tricky to know at first: withheld from our sympathy, hard to recognise as Stevens through the digital fur.
Scene by scene the film takes its time with him and we get the hang of the character at the same pace that Belle does.
Emma Watson isn’t a flawless Belle. However overawed the character should be by her surroundings, there’s a lack of confidence in her gait – she sometimes seems to be hitting marks obediently rather than owning each moment.
But she’s good: that girl-next-door winsomeness and a sweet, clear singing voice see her through.
She’s ideal in close-up, a charming reactor in that trickiest aspect of her craft – feigning delight at dancing crockery.
And what a makeover the contents of the castle’s scullery have received. The biggest names in the cast line up to do their bit: you might consider Ian McKellen and Emma Thompson vastly overqualified to be voicing a grumpy old mantel clock and a chirpy tea pot respectively but, once you’ve heard their interpretations, you wouldn’t want anyone else having a go.
Resurrecting some of his Moulin Rouge! va-va-voom, Ewan McGregor is delightful as Lumière, the affable candlestick-MC. Menken-Ashman’s Be Our Guest, in Condon’s hands, flings out a show-stopping kaleidoscope of state-of-the-art dazzlement, with perfect licence to get as trippy as it damn well chooses. It even tops the original – talk about throwing in everything and the kitchen sink.
Back in the village, everything’s similarly and satisfyingly familiar – well, except maybe that doting lickspittle of the hunter Gaston, LeFou (Josh Gad), who has been re-imagined as a slightly gross and obvious closet case.
Luke Evans is utterly perfect as Gaston – malignly virile, a camp narcissist in all the right ways and a paragon of macho bigotry whose sway over the townsfolk has real weight in the third act.
Condon has done virtually everything in his power to make this film work, down to a sugar-rush finale which makes the star cameos pay off like bonus punchlines – or those “very special guest” appearances for 10 seconds at the end of a panto. Gorging all at once on this chocolate box of a picture feels almost greedy, but why stop at once?
A large chunk of its audience will be straight back in line for seconds. – The Telegraph
Beauty and the Beast is showing at Baywest IMAX from today, but officially opens on the South African cinema circuit on Thursday April 13, with select preview screenings at some cinemas.