La Belle Et La Bête aka Beauty & The Beast (2014) Review!!

Synopsis – An unexpected romance blooms after the the youngest daughter of a merchant who has fallen on hard times offers herself to the mysterious beast to which her father has become indebted.

My Take – This version is very different from the famous versions, Disney’s and “Belle et Bête” (1946) by Jean Cocteau, or even the recent Beastly, as it concentrates much more on the family’s back story and how awful Belle’s siblings are. This is a highly dysfunctional family and the father seems oblivious to the monsters he’s helped to create. All are monsters, except for Belle. And eventually, you learn that the father isn’t all that wonderful either. There is a story involving Belle’s crappy brother and some money-lenders as well as the creature’s back story.

Unlike most versions, this one slowly reveals bits and pieces of this sad tale and exactly why he’s been turned into a beast is quite strange. So was this film worth seeing? Well, It’s far from the best version I’ve seen but it is worth your time. If ever there’s a dire need to watch this film, it would be for Christophe Beaucarne’s stunning cinematography – a technical feat that somehow works in tandem with the heavy use of visual effects. Some of the backdrops are almost as impressive as those created in The Hobbit films and that’s saying a lot. Major pluses are how beautiful the film is in many places as well as a few changes to the generally accepted story. I appreciate how Belle’s father really DID deserve to be punished, whereas in other versions Beast just seems mean and unfair in punishing the old guy. But, what didn’t thrill me was the amount of extra story. With all the subplots and back story, so much of the romance between Belle and Beast is missing and her falling for him seems to make far less sense.

Another standout is the superb casting of Lea Seydoux as Belle who injected a slightly independent toughness in her love for the Beast by Vincent Cassel. Though her dreams, she begins to know the Beast and later fall in love with him as a person. On the other hand, Vincent Cassel convinced us with his tough exterior but fragile interior beastly nature.From his love and hate of himself, we can appreciate the suffering he went through and why Belle fall for him. The light-hearted moments of lovable gremlins and adorable dogs injected fun and humor which capture little kids imagination. On the whole “La belle et la bête” aka Beauty & The Beast has almost everything going for it since the soundtrack, the costumes, and the landscape felt perfect. Director Christophe Gans (Silent Hill) have created a delightful family movie while giving it a modern twist.