The Beautician and the Beast (1997)

Why so much hype?

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

After looking at some of the scores people gave this movie I honestly didn't think it would amount to much. However, after actually watching it I found it to be surprisingly good. Fran Drescher plays "Joy Miller" who is a beautician in New York City. Timothy Dalton is "Boris Pochenko", a brutal tyrant of a small Eastern European country (Slovetzia) who has mistakenly hired Joy to teach his four children. His Prime Minister, "Leonid Kleist" (played by Patrick Malahide), insures that Boris rules with an iron fist. Joy arrives and becomes instrumental in introducing much needed change. More importantly though, she changes Boris for the better as well. Now, while this plot is extremely predictable, the comedy is anything but that as there are many surprises written into the script that are simply hilarious and I think the writer (Todd Graff) deserves a lot of credit for this. Likewise, even though Fran Drescher was nominated for a "Razzie Award" for her performance, I can honestly say that it was totally undeserved. I found her performance to be both witty and refreshing. I also liked the way she and Timothy Dalton worked so well together. The "massage scene" in particular was especially amusing. In closing, I thought this was a thoroughly enjoyable movie and well worth the time spent.

Now what to make of this movie. I have only watched five minutes of the pilot episode of the nanny, as well as the closing minutes of a number of episodes and have decided that I don't particularly like it. The Beautician and the Beast is basically the Nanny made into a movie, with a few things altered. She isn't sacked from a beauty parlour, but is brought into the home of a really rich man (actually an Eastern European dictator) as a nanny. The movie is quite funny in parts but a really do not think much of Fran Dresure (sp?), especially how I heard the comment that her character in this movie is exactly the same as her character in the nanny.This movie makes numerous assumptions about 'decadent American society' in which it destroys. Rather it attacks the eastern European dictatorship and makes America look like a wonderful place. The promiscuous American is destroyed with Fran's character: she is not interested in guys until the right one comes along, and it is obvious that it was going to be Pochenko (Timothy Dalton), and as the movie draws to the close the idealistic Hollywood ideal of love is emphasised in the most sickening way.The movie blatantly has a go at how these communist nations allegedly altered history to suit themselves. Stalin allegedly did this to make him look like he was really close to Lenin when he was not. America subtly does this with their claims that World War 1 started in 1917 and World War II begins in 1942, the years they became involved in both wars. This is done more as a joke than as an attack, because now communist has gone and everybody can live happily in the marvelous freedom that a democracy brings. Yet Fran is extremely cynical about democratic politicians as she quotes "they're politicians, you can't trust them." Beautician and the Beast is really a remake of Sound of Music with the music replaced with comedy. The movie blatantly steals from the original with the clothes made out of sheets. There are a lot of similarities, a nanny coming in to take care of a very powerful man's children. In Sound of Music he was a Nazi commander while in this movie he is a communist dictator.The last interesting thing to note is when Pochenko is addressing the peasants from a balcony. They scream and cheer at his words. He then walks into the building and Joy Miller (Fran Desure) walks out and thrusts her arms into the air and the crowd cheers. This strikes Pochenko with the fact that it is not him that they cheer, but rather anybody who stands there. Fear is thrust onto people whereas respect is earned.

SPOILERS:I had to have been warned by the title of this piece of work,yet I was bored that night and there was nothing else on TV so I thought: Why Not? it can't be that bad? WRONG!BRR,it still gives me the chills thinking back of it.Everything about this movie sucks:the acting,the story,everything!First of all the acting:Fran Drescher is probably one of the most annoying people ever and not only because of that nagging voice.She just can't act! And they probably chose her for the role since she did nothing more in that terrible sitcom "The Nanny" and maybe cause she should be beautiful.(NOT!) Timothy Dalton then.Not a bad actor,yet in this movie he puts on an accent that makes no sense at all.It always freaks me out that those Hollywood movies use those over the top accents for Russians or Germans or whatever.It is quite insulting to the natives of those countries,if you ask me.The story is even worse,cause there actually ain't any! Woo,an American chick goes to Slovetzia (!?!?!?) to brainwash a so called dictator and the entire country in the Western ways.Just like Bush does nowadays in Iraq (only Saddam was a real dictator). The tale offers no surprises at all and ends with the two lovebirds kissing on the street,how sweet (uch,uch).Yet,the way that Ken Kwapis (a really legendary director) shows "us" the way that Eastern Europe lives is extremely narrow minded and very insulting,almost barbaric. Everybody in Slovetzia is an idiot yet the holy American girl saves the entire country with her capitalistic ways.No wonder that a lot of non-western people hate America,just look at this movie.By the way I don't hate America,I just hate the Bush-government!The cliches in this movie were too much for me.The dictator(a bad Stalin look-a-like),the American girl who changes it all,the children who want to become like her. Every cliche of the McCarthy era are shown without any shame.The witch hunter would be proud!For a close look at the egocentric and narrow minded look on the world by some Americans,watch this movie.1/10 (Currently number 4 in my bottom top 10 list)

I was apprehensive when this film came on TV, but as there was nothing else on and I was bored I decided to give it a go. It began badly as I found Fran Drescher incredibly annoying, mainly due to her piercing New York accent. Timothy Dalton was fantastic in his role, and made me laugh a number of times. Ian McNeice was also quite good in what was essentially just a rehash of his role in Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls. The script wasn't excellent but did the job. The film did begin to lose momentum as Timothy Dalton became less beast-ly and the film is about half an hour too long, but those are really the only bad points. This film isn't a work of art, but it provides nice escapism for two hours. 6/10.