Idris’s Beast isn’t the new Jaws (well, I wasn’t bitten)
Beast Cert: 15, 1hr 33mins ★★★☆☆ Mr Malcolm’s List Cert: PG, 1hr 57mins ★★★☆☆ Official Competition Cert: 15, 1hr 55mins ★★☆☆☆
Let’s face it, when filmmakers want to scare the pants off a summertime audience, their first choice tends to be sharks. Ever since Jaws, which was released almost half a century ago, it’s been the murderous monster of choice, and the recent likes of The Shallows and 47 Meters Down shows there’s life – and indeed bloody death – in the old dorsal fin/razor-sharp teeth/ duh-duh combo yet. After all, we’ve all been to the seaside.
But the vast savannahs of southern Africa? Not so much.
Which is one of the reasons why Idris Elba’s new film struggles to instil that much-needed sense of fear. The other, of course, is its choice of killer beast.
Yes, its makers have gone with a lion – noble, endangered, king of the animals and beloved star of such firm family favourites as The Lion King and Born Free.
This particular lion, however, enraged by the massacre of its pride by gun-toting poachers, has ‘gone rogue, it’s fighting back’, which is definitely bad news for newly widowed Dr Nate Samuels (ah, medical knowledge, that’s always handy) and his two truculent teenage daughters, Meredith (Iyana Halley) and Norah (Leah Jeffries).
Newly arrived from the States, Nate (Elba) and his girls have barely been in South Africa a day before they’re rushed off for an impromptu safari by Martin (Sharlto Copley), an old family friend and resident game warden. But having first introduced them to some relatively friendly lions (he raised them from cubs), he takes the family on to a nearby village, apparently famed for its welcoming inhabitants. So why does it seem to be deserted?
And we’re off…
Beast is directed by Baltasar Kormakur, whose past successes include Adrift, Everest and The Deep (no, not that one) and who knows a thing or two about creating extended tension and working with visual effects. Which, just occasionally, is what the marauding lion rather too obviously is.
The screenplay is littered with people either saying the wrong thing or, worse still, doing the wrong thing. You’d think that ‘Don’t wander off’, ‘Stay in the truck’ and ‘Look after your sister’ would be clear enough, but apparently not.
But as we stagger from one disastrous setback to the next, the movie does all come together reasonably effectively.
Elba, who starred in the notaltogether-dissimilar The Mountain Between Us with Kate Winslet, about a man and woman battling for survival after a plane crash, is good at this sort of againstall-odds thing, and Copley offers authentic-feeling support.
As for the lion: well, he certainly serves up some decent scares but I think it’s telling that, for me at least, the nastiest moment involved, er… a snake.
As Mr Malcolm’s List gets under way, we have the firm impression that we’re in a world somewhere between the real Jane Austen and the period pastiche that is TV’s hit show, Bridgerton. Indeed, it’s very much the latter that comes to mind more strongly as we tick off the prerequisites: knowing narration (tick), colour-blind casting (tick), high-society courtship dramas (tick).
Then energy levels drop, the pace slows, the jaunty music fades and we’re left wondering whether we might be back with the real Austen or one of her contemporaries after all.
In fact, the film is based on a novel by Suzanne Allain, who selfpublished it back in 2009. It was then published conventionally a couple of years ago, after a short film that had been adapted from it showed there was an appetite for the book. And that has led to the longer feature film we now see. You can only admire the entrepreneurial spirit.
What ensues is a tangled tale of attempted early 19th Century comeuppance, after the spirited but not terribly well-informed Julia (Zawe Ashton) is publicly spurned by the eligible bachelor Mr Malcolm (Sope Dirisu).
Unforgivably, she has failed to measure up to the notorious list of attributes he requires in a potential bride.
To avenge her public humiliation, she calls in her old and very pretty schoolfriend, Selina (Slumdog Millionaire star Freida Pinto).
The idea is that with the help of a well-connected cousin, Julia will make sure that Selina meets every requirement on Mr Malcolm’s dreaded list but that, as a friend, Selina will then publicly
reject him when the inevitable proposal results. What could possibly go wrong?
There are some lovely performances here: Ashton and Dirisu both impress, and do look out for a beautiful late cameo from former Family Affairs star Dona Croll.
But despite their best efforts, the end result, while perfectly watchable, still feels a little slow and flat.
Official Competition was first shown at the Venice Film Festival last year and the Spanish comedy has been touring film festivals all around the world ever since. And that’s understandable because, if ever a film was made for the slightly smug, aren’t-we-cool filmfestival crowd, it is this one. An elderly but hugely wealthy businessman resolves to make a brilliant film and calls in the best talent money can buy.
There’s a maverick feminist director (Penélope Cruz) and two of the best actors in Spain – one a world-famous film star (Antonio Banderas), the other a serious-minded giant of the stage (Oscar Martinez). The two men respect each other, but to say they have different approaches to acting is an understatement. What ensues will make artier types laugh a lot but is eventually overplayed and, despite the best endeavours of the top-notch cast, probably won’t do a lot for a wider audience.