Beautiful (2009)

Beautiful, moving film.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

..... told in an urban legend style!There's the key phrase ... urban legend ... which you hear more than once throughout this movie! This story is just an urban legend. That weird neighborhood with those big odd houses and equally odd residents. How could a policeman own that huge house that Danny lived in? And the neighborhood seemed totally uninvolved with their fellow neighbors. Suzy outside showing herself off and then again inside? There's a couple having sex and nobody closes the curtains on the ground floor of their houses? Then number 46, the house at the end of the road ... the mystery house with the woman forever standing at the window. None of these characters comes across as real. There's just enough reality to them to be believed - just like an urban legend.Then there is Danny, the withdrawn fourteen year old obsessed with taking photos and with Suzy next door. For a loner young boy he has nerves of steel and no fear of taking the challenges Suzy gives him to earn her attention. Just boil this story down to the opening stories of the missing girls - Danny - Suzy - house 46 - the strange woman inside - the detective magazines - and Max; you have yourself a full blown urban legend.This is an OK movie with just enough edge to it to keep your interest up and then the powerhouse ending to bring it all into focus! None of it ever really happened.I think the movie is called 'Beautiful' because director Flaherty was hung up on Sebastian's face - all those closeups of that most innocent wide eyed actor with that halo of black hair!

I was quite drawn in by the title and brief description of the movie. I watched this at home on the TV one bored night - uh, morning.With that said, I want it to be known that this movie was actually pretty captivating. The relationship between the "weird" main character(Danny) and the "alluring" girl next door(Suzy) was enough to find something odd about the way manipulation was used to find out more information about the mysterious disappearances.The climax of the film however, was a little weird. I was hoping for some dramatic reunion between the woman in the house (Jennifer) and Danny. *Call me a sucker for a happy ending* I really found a likeness towards the stepmother, but for Danny's sake, I wished the whereabouts of his real mom would've been better explained...Not just that she's dead so the woman in the house can't be her :/On one hand, I was exciting about the shrieking phone call where Danny dares to go into the villainous house with his dad's firearm to save the girl of his dreams, but at the end... well, I was left feeling sorry for the couple who just wanted to be left alone.Ugh, and don't get me started on Suzy. That chick's forehead alone could crush walnuts. (I'm sorry. I just had to add a little rant about how she was seen as being attractive.)I found the ending to be a little too calm. Most people found it confusing. I just assumed that Suzy's mom sitting in the window was the only adding to the film's creepy atmosphere. It made me think that perhaps Jennifer was trying to protect the neighborhood, the same way Suzy's mom said she would. In the film's defense, Jennifer did keep telling Danny that it wasn't safe coming to her house (which could have easily been seen as a hint towards her motherly past-life she doesn't want speak of)The only question I had in my mind was: How did the mom die? Why was she ripped out of all of her pictures? And most importantly, how did Jennifer get her charm bracelet? (seems a bit more than a coincidence)

Just want to write a quick note to combat the other comments on here a bit. First, this movie isn't TRYING to be "American Beauty" or "Donnie Darko" -- and it certainly isn't trying to be David Lynch. To compare this to any David Lynch film shows you don't understand Lynch at all.This is an atmospheric thriller. No, the plot isn't ridiculously tangled and doesn't have countless twists, like many Hollywood thrillers that seem to feel obligated to throw dozens of red herrings at the audience so that they feel sufficiently fishy when they leave the theater.But neither is this movie trying to be an over-the-top freakfest like a Lynch film. I love David Lynch's style and the effect his films have on me, but this is quite different.This movie was slow and calculated, with plenty of scenes to build atmosphere -- and thereby deepen the sense of character and environment. No, every scene does not advance the plot. Yes, you can tell most of what's going to happen in advance.But for a strange story about a demented youth for whom everything goes terribly wrong, I thought this was wonderful. All the actors are top-notch, and the cinematography is delightful.A more accurate frame of reference than the above-mentioned movies would be "Heavenly Creatures," Peter Jackson's tale of the disturbed fantasy life of two girls that explodes into violence. I felt shades of that story throughout "Beautiful." If you want a fast-moving, keep-you-guessing thriller, don't look here. You'll be disappointed. But if you want to see a nicely shot, atmospheric tale that slowly spins out of control, this is well worth your time.

Where do I start? Well, basically, see this film for free because you will want a refund otherwise. Written and Directed by some copycat wannabee film maker called Dean OFlaherty we have a very poor and deliberately convoluted remake of the collision between DONNIE DARKO and BLUE VELVET, or of you prefer TWIN PEAKS and DISTURBIA.. This mashed potato with bloodstains is called BEAUTIFUL. The poster even copies LOLITA. The whole result is just crap. A waste of resources, actors and your time and their talent. It is like some self obsessed actor's studio thesping exercise that should never be filmed. Again we have some 30 something auteur who simply takes other film maker's ideas and images copies them onto film in his suburb, incredibly and unfortunately Australian film funding bodies put public money into it and we get another pointless ugly cruel stupid and wasteful film that will be forgotten by winter. BEAUTIFUL is an insult to film goers (tickets cost $16 in Australian multiplexes) and an irritating waste of talent and resources. it is not awful-fun like LIQUID BRIDGE or a guilty pleasure, it is simply infuriating plagiarism of more interesting themes that got onto a movie screen in the last 20 years. So ridiculous is the so called plot that a narrator has to explain it all in the misty wrap-up. Avoid. You will not be feeling too beautiful yourself otherwise. It even goes for a NATURAL BORN KILLERS newsreel with HOSTEL tool waving moment. Just terrible.