A_Different_Drummer Review of Beautiful

Beautiful (2000)

Re-Imagining Bette Davis...? And it sort of works

[8/10 · 24 November 2013]

There is so much going on here that I have to suggest the critics may have been a tad unfair. First, the talent. We have Sally Field behind the camera, and in front we have no less than Minnie Driver and Joey Lauren Adams. The script to be frank has some flaws, but it aims high. Re-imagining the iconic Bette Davis story of (spoiler!!) a mother who has to pretend NOT to be the woman who gave birth to her own daughter, and setting the whole thing against a secondary story about modern pageants and the superficiality therein, is .... well... ambitious. And it also helps that Minnie Driver sings her own song (she has an excellent voice!) in the big finale. Now, truth be told, the two stories do not blend together in perfect harmony and there is some dissonance ... until the aforesaid pageant scene, which is pretty much worth the ticket. It is a 6-hankie extravaganza. It also helps that Hallie Kate Eisenberg pretty much steals every scene not otherwise nailed down. Clever casting, by the end of the film the audience suddenly realizes, OMG, she does look like Driver after all. Under-rated, and not a bad way to spend an afternoon. Driver's rendition of WILL YOU STILL LOVE me is a Youtube favourite, and deservedly so.