'Beastly' not a beauty, but not bad

Based on the 2007 book by Alex Flinn, Beastly is about Kyle (Alex Pettyfer), an egotistic teenager who constantly singles out unattractive classmates. He ultimately picks on the wrong person, a witch named Kendra (Mary-Kate Olsen), and she curses him to live his life as ugly on the outside as his personality is on the inside. The only way his looks can turn back to normal is by finding someone to love him just the way he is within one year, and that one person is Lindy (Vanessa Hudgens). The entire experience changed Kyle’s life forever.

Originally, I thought this movie would have been easily comparable to the Twilight series, but I was wrong. There isn’t any resemblance of the Twilight saga in Beastly and it has nothing to do with vampires.

Flinn did a great job on creating an original work that utilizes fantasy elements, such as magic, to relate to real-life situations (such as falling in love and learning values). But Beastly is obviously a modern retelling of Beauty and the Beast

The critics’ grades on Rotten Tomatoes adds up to an abysmal 21%. Aside from the fantasy elements, there were specific events in the plot that didn’t make much sense. Lindy’s father was an addict, which lead to her being miraculously sent to Kyle’s home (of all people) to live for protection, which seemed way too unrealistic for me.

Besides that, the movie was decent. The makeup was well done on Kyle and Kendra’s faces, and the cast was nicely selected. Neil Patrick Harris' character of Will, Kyle’s blind tutor, blew me out of the water. He did a phenomenal job with really soaking into the skin of his character, and was extremely believable as a blind man. If you’re in need to see a movie with a little teen romance and supernatural elements, you won’t be disappointed with Beastly.


- Jen Danczak, PPC Intern