Share All sharing options for: The Beauty và the Beast remake is a long series of wasted opportunities
Warning: Spoilers ahead for the tiny details that differentiate the 2017 remake of Beauty and the Beast from the 1991 animated version.
Bạn đang xem: beauty and the beast (2017) directed by bill condon
There’s been a fair bit of controversy over Bill Condon’s live-action remake of Disney’s animated 1991 classic Beauty and the Beast, mostly centered over Condon’s proclamation that he’s given Disney its first canonically, openly gay character. In an interview with Attitude, Condon described that character, the villain’s sycophantic sidekick LeFou, as if his sexuality was a significant, foregrounded part of the plot, và as if it ultimately arrived at some major moment of truth:
“He’s confused about what he wants. It’s somebody who’s just realising that he has these feelings. &
But when it arrives, that “nice, exclusively gay” moment is a one-second shot of LeFou in a fancy ballroom-dance finale, accidentally shoved into the arms of a nameless man who’s wearing drag because of an earlier sight gag. It isn’t an “exclusively gay moment,” it’s about a dozen vaguely campy frames. Much lượt thích Finding Dory’s controversial, much-ballyhooed “lesbian couple” — two women who appeared in a extremely brief, silent reaction shot in the film — LeFou is all truyền bá blitz & no actual payoff. But the tepidness of this built-up moment hasn’t stopped the predictable backlash, from online complaints khổng lồ an Alabama theater noisily pulling the film from its lineup (proving the bigoted old chestnut “why are they pushing their views on us” is still alive & well in the world) lớn Malaysia banning the film. Khổng lồ Disney’s credit, the company has refused to lớn recut the film lớn appease Malaysian censors, which is an admirably principled stand khổng lồ take over a single second of footage.
And he isn’t the only wasted opportunity in Condon’s remake. It’s largely a frustrating clone of the original movie — same songs, same script, often even the exact same shot choices — but it replaces every moment of authentic or moving emotion with bombast và hyperbolic overemphasis. It slows down the flow of the familiar music by jamming in extra phrases, & builds up the energy by jamming nonstop, busy action onto the screen. It’s a garish, strident film, as well as a profoundly unnecessary one. And wherever its creators come up with fresh subplots or new character details, they tend lớn be poorly integrated, slapped erratically over the existing narrative like a half-assed coat of paint. Among the other things the film throws out & instantly discards:
Belle as inventor & outcast
The prerelease hype around LeFou was mirrored by the prerelease hype around Belle, with Emma Watson, who plays her in the film, telling EW that Belle is now the talented inventor, rather than her father Maurice. The idea was to give Belle more of a background, and more of a purpose in life than wandering around singing about how her community disappoints her. In practice, though, her big background development consists entirely of a scene where she uses a barrel and a donkey to do her laundry so she has more time khổng lồ read. She doesn’t actually use her newfound inventing skills lớn any meaningful narrative purpose. When she needs lớn escape a cage, Beast’s servants help her; when she needs to pick a lock, Maurice handles it. Any ambitions she has as an inventor are never verbalized, and her theoretical skills never become useful. Past the brief laundry sequence, inventing never comes up again. It’s not part of the story, it’s a random, unattached moment.In the same way, there’s a quick shot of Belle teaching a young girl khổng lồ read, và angering the local peasants, who quickly stop her. Apparently female literacy is anathema in a fantasy villa where only the boys are seen going lớn school. This is meant to lớn explain why the entire town is so obsessed with Belle being, as the opening tuy nhiên says, “very different from the rest of us” và “a beauty but a funny girl.” The idea of Belle trying lớn overcome institutionalized sexism in a provincial town is a pretty heady one. But again, the film does nothing with it, apart from a single line from Belle, late in the film, complaining about how she doesn’t fit in with the locals.
Xem thêm: Truyện Cười Việt Nam Và Thế Giới Chọn Lọc, Truyện Cười Mới Nhất 2020, Cười Vỡ Bụng
Gaston as a troubled war veteran
Less hyped, but still strangely underlined in the new movie, is the idea that the villainous blowhard Gaston (Luke Evans) is such a jerk because he’s a professional soldier with no battles left lớn fight, & he longs khổng lồ return to lớn a simpler, more purposeful time in his life. He và LeFou know each other from “the war,” where they were comrades in arms. It’s a potentially meaningful relationship that explains why Gaston blankly tolerates LeFou’s creepy handsiness, & why LeFou sticks with a loudmouthed bully. It’s mildly implied that Gaston’s temper & inability to lớn control his rage comes from his past, & that LeFou is an actual friend who shares Gaston’s history and honestly respects và understands him. That’s another potentially powerful development, but it mostly surfaces via a couple of throwaway lines, and one joke about LeFou’s Gaston-whispering talents.LeFou’s rehabilitation
The heel-face turn is a great tradition in stories about villains, & it’s given American pop culture some of its most memorable story endings — in Return of the Jedi, in Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, even most recently in Moana. So the idea that LeFou might not play out entirely as a villain is potentially intriguing — & certainly in keeping with Condon’s larger intentions for the character. Bad enough for Disney’s first supposed openly gay character to lớn be swishy, obsessive, & annoying without him also being an irredeemable villain. If only the character’s development had any meaningful roots in the earlier parts of the story. There are tiny hints at him having a personality past “sidekick” in his emotional support of Gaston, but as character development goes, it’s a thin soup. At most, he gets a couple of lines to tư vấn the idea that he has his own morals và goals — the best one is a new addition in “The Mob Song,” as Gaston whips the villagers into a fury against the Beast. His “Meh, I’ve decided to switch sides!” line is particularly offhanded and silly.
