Emma Thompson

Tuesday’s Reviews – Beauty and the Beast (2017)

Beauty and the Beast, Disney, Emma Thompson, Emma Watson, films, Ian McKellen, meh, remake, review

I won’t say that I was predisposed to hate this film from the moment it was announced but I was always incredibly sceptical about it. The original animated version of the story is my favourite Disney film, one of my all-time favourite animated films, and, quite probably, one of my all-time favourite films… ever. It is superbly animated, well voiced, and pretty much perfect in every way. I love it… even with its questionable view of a woman’s role and the dodgy central relationship. As long as the pictures are so pretty I can work with it. So, it was always going to be a tough sell when it was being remade starring one of my least favourite actors ever. No offence to Emma Watson, who is a fantastic, intelligent and brilliant woman, but I just don’t think her acting has ever been anything to get excited about. So to have her taking the role of the Disney Princess that I idnetify most with kind of pissed me off. Especially when the audio of her ‘singing’ was finally released. Not the finest actor and in need of autotune to get through the songs? Who decided she should play Belle again? Anyway, I needed to see this film before I decided whether I disliked this film or absolutely detested it. So I did.

To be perfectly honest, I didn’t hate this film as much as I thought I would. I mean, I can’t say with any honesty that I loved it but there were parts of it that I thought were really well done. By the end I couldn’t help but get caught up in the story and wept with as much joy as I would have with the original. However, that could have something to do with the fact that this film is basically the same as the original animation. Remember that shot-for-shot remake of Psycho starring Vince Vaughn? Remember how necessary and wonderful everyone thought it was? No. Well, Disney clearly decided that it was a workable concept and did exactly that with Beauty and the Beast.

Which I guess would have been easier to take had it not been for the amount of hype that had been built up about it being an updated and modernised retelling. From director Bill Condon rabbiting in about LeFou’s “gay moment” or Emma Watson promising we’d have an empowered and feminist Belle, the stage was being set for an incredibly forward-thinking release from Disney. It all sounded too good to be true… and it turned out that it was. That “gay moment” that caused such a stir? Turned out that was a couple of blink and you’ll miss ’em moments where LaFou acted a little bit camper than normal. His sexuality was never explicit and it was definitely not a defining moment in Disney’s history. This wasn’t something worth shouting about. It was positive, maybe, but it needed to be more obvious to count.

Then there’s the whole feminist thing. Emma Watson didn’t turn Belle into a feminist; she’s always been one. The original film showed Belle pushing out against what was expected of a woman in her town and wanting knowledge and freedom. She stood up to the Beast and saved her father. The only real addition this time is that she makes her own version of a washing machine. Emma Watson celebrated the fact that Belle was an inventor herself this time but we really see little evidence of this. She does one thing and it’s actually a bit of a dick move on her part. She puts her machine into use and effectively stops anyone else doing their washing in the shared fountain. There could have been a much more empowered ending to this film where Belle, who sang of wanting adventure, didn’t just settle into marriage with a man who had locked her up only a short time before. There has been no attempt to add anything to Belle’s character in the slightest and, if you ask me, the change from animation to real-life has only made Belle seem like more of a brat.

It’s something I never thought when watching the original film but Belle is kind of a bitch. I mean she openly sings about her “provincial town” and the “little people”, which in this situation comes across as being massively negative, Yes, the townsfolk don’t seem to want to befriend Belle but she doesn’t really give them any reason to. She despises them and the lives they lead, It’s horrible. And I think a lot of that has to do with Emma Watson’s acting style. She doesn’t come in all bolshy and brash. She’s polite, kind and well-spoken. It’s not her difference that causes people to turn away from her but her attitude towards others. She talks about the Beast being “mean and course and unrefined”, well up until that point so was she. It’s stays so faithful to the original that it highlights flaws that we never saw in the first place.

The film is most unsure when it is recreating well-known moments. The scenes featuring the songs from the previous film all seem a bit awkward and kind of like those fan-made remakes you see on YouTube. Nobody seems quite comfortable, least of all Emma Watson, and it all feels a bit too uncanny. The songs focusing around real-people are clumsy and don’t flow as well on screen. There is too much going on and the direction seems to work against it. Then the big CGI filled ‘Be Our Guest’ was just an over-the-top extravaganza of computer imagery. It tries so hard to recreate the original whilst also proving that technology has moved on. It’s just a bit of mess.

As is most of the characterisation. It attempts to give them some adedd depth and backstory but it’s not always successful. Emma Thompson sounds like she could be a fine singer if she wasn’t also attempting to sound like a Cockney. It is something that Angela Lansbury managed effortlessly in the original but causes Thompson to spend most of her time “sing talking” instead of actually singing. The only word I know to describe it is the delightful German word “Sprechgesang”. Ewan McGregor, who we know is a great singer, also suffers due to his sketchy French accent. Luke Evans is a remarkable singer but fails to get to the funny side of Gaston and, instead, focuses solely on making him menacing. The original film was so great at mocking his masculinity to make him see even more pathetic. Here, he’s just a one-dimensional villain.

Of course, the worst offender of all is still Emma Watson who, as lovely as she may be in real life, just shouldn’t have played Belle. She’s too timid and doesn’t give the character enough stage presence. Yes, she has the beauty down and she loves books but very little else stands out about her interpretation. It’s Hermione Granger but less of a badass. Then there’s the singing. It’s not that she’s a terrible singer by any means but that Disney have decided to autotune the fuck out of her vocals. She’s not got the strongest voice (especially in a cast featuring the likes of Audra McDonald – who is criminally underused by the way) but it’s a sweet and delicate one that would have been more than up for the task. But that wasn’t good enough. So now it just sounds shit and it’s not her fault. They wanted a big name, I get that, but if they wanted a perfect singer too then Emma Watson wasn’t the girl for them.

I know it sounds like I hate this film but I didn’t. The problem was most of the things I loved about it were bits that were copied from the original so it doesn’t really count. The fact is, there wasn’t enough fresh and new about this remake. It is almost a shot-for-shot reshoot with real characters and CGI. There are actors, like Kevin Kline, who are never used to their potential whilst background characters are over-the-top and distract from scenes. The set-pieces are too brash and confusing in an obvious game of one-upmanship. The problem with this film is that it’s painfully obvious that this was a film made for profit and nothing else.

Brave (2012)

animation, bear, Emma Thompson, family, review, Scotland

It’s been a good while since I watched Brave and I found that I was unable to find anything to say about it. It didn’t really have much of an impact on me. The film wasn’t the worst film that Pixar has ever produced but it is in no way up there with the greatest. It’s difficult to discuss a Pixar film without looking back at their (mostly) great back catalogue of films. Much in the same way that people can’t open up to Woody Allen’s latest films without getting nostalgic about the Woody of the 70s and 80s. Of course, it’s not a great system but when you’re dealing with a film studio that brought us family favourites like Toy Story and Finding Nemo it’s hard to forget just how much potential they have. Up against some of these greats Brave just comes across as much less ambitious and suggests that Pixar are quickly running out of fresh ideas.

Brave is set in the luscious Highlands of Scotland where young princess Merida attempts to fight against the expectations put upon her so that she is free to romp around firing arrows and hunting bears. As heroines go, Merida is a major improvement on the old Disney princesses we grew up on. She knows her own mind and isn’t afraid of standing up to her mother and father. However, Merida is still a child and her independence can often descend into whiney and bratty behaviour. Of course, I can’t say that I don’t agree with her idea that riding through the forests and shooting arrows from her bow is much more appealing that marrying the son of a Scottish lord. I reckon if someone was forcing me to do the latter I would moan about it a little too.

In fact the first part of the story, which sees Merida take a stand against the law that demands she marry the winner of the Highland games, provides a strong foundation for a great story. However, the writers make the strange decision to change direction and turn this young woman’s fight to prove herself into a tale of accidental transformation. Merida is then forced to set out on a fantasy adventure with her mother in tow. The character who was given the least amount of build up and, after the unnecessary triplets, is the least interesting character in the film. Emma Thompson does as good a job voicing this lame and undeveloped character but it is difficult to care about the fate of a woman whose only role in the film is to be more annoying and whiney than her daughter.

This incredible decision turns what could have been an interesting update to the traditional fairytale into a simple family soap opera. What begins as a potentially clever, coming-of-age struggle descends into an obvious series of cliches. There is nothing clever about the second half of the script and the emotional impact is lost within the wave of boredom and deja vu that will be washing over most of the audience. Without wanting to sound too brutal, this part of the film left me absolutely cold. I lost interest in what was going on as it was so painfully clear how the story was going to progress and how the writers would try and inject humour. I stopped paying attention to the action and instead counted down the minutes until this dismal story was over.

A story that also ensures that Merida’s father is completely underused and becomes nothing more than an irritating bumbling fool. At least this explains the bizarre decision to ask Billy Connolly to voice him. Who better to lead a rowdy bunch of lumbering Scottish warriors than the rowdy, lumbering Scottish comedian? Of course, he does pick up the role fairly easily because it’s almost identical to the one he played in the disappointing Gulliver’s Travels. There is a direct link to the Scottish ogre of the Shrek films here but there is no sense of subtle humour here. Rather than have a sarcastic and cutting outcast we have a bumpkin whose manic behaviour just became tedious.

Although Brave does have its amusing moments, it never quite reaches the mark. The script doesn’t really take off and we miss much of the subtle humour and witty one-liners that fill Pixar’s back catalogue. It is a film that finds itself sucked into its fictional traditions and flits between vaguely serious melodrama and over-the-top silliness. There is none of the refreshing self-awareness and simplicity that made previous offerings so entertaining and engaging. It has some great standout moments but the film ends up dragging on whilst offering very little to keep you intrigued. For a story set in the wilds of Scotland that promises archery, bears and battling Scottish clans, it ends up being a bafflingly dull affair.

Thankfully those Scottish highlands have been beautifully recreated and the visual imagery is as stunning as you would expect from such great animators. The textures of the backdrop are gorgeous and show just how far animated films have come since Pixar’s early days. Just take a look at Merida’s flowing ginger curls as she races through the trees on her adventure. In terms of animation, the studio is continuing to push themselves and showing that even this type of complex imagery is well within their reach. Had this film not been so incredibly beautiful to watch I am sure there is no way I would have reached the final credits. It is a massive shame that such a fantastic example of this studio’s work is let down by a storyline and script that can’t have seen much in the way of editing or rewrites. This artwork demanded sharper dialogue, a more thought out plot path and fully fleshed characters.

Brave is one of those disappointing Pixar films that had so much potential but just falls short by the end. The plot will unexpectedly changes direction whenever it can and get rid of inconvenient characters in the most ridiculous manner. Julie Walters turns up for a brief spell as a Macbeth style witch who offers Merida a glimmer of hope. Then poof! Gone. It isn’t wholly disappointing but it a film that doesn’t go anywhere. There is no real direction for the plot and we end up with a feeling that neither Merida, her family, or the audience are really any better off than they were before the opening credits began. Pixar have a reputation for producing great animated films that appeal to children and adults alike. I find it hard to believe either of these groups would have been satisfied with this production.