Beastly (2011)

A modern-day take on the "Beauty and the Beast" tale where a New York teen is transformed into a hideous monster in order to find true love.

Director:

Daniel Barnz

Writers:

Daniel Barnz (screenplay), Alex Flinn (novel)

Stars:

Alex Pettyfer, Justin Bradley, Mary-Kate Olsen

1 win & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Alex Pettyfer	...	Kyle Kingson
Justin Bradley	...	Student
Mary-Kate Olsen	...	Kendra
Dakota Johnson	...	Sloan
Erik Knudsen	...	Trey
Vanessa Hudgens	...	Lindy
Karl Graboshas	...	Male Teacher
Peter Krause	...	Rob
LisaGay Hamilton	...	Zola (as Lisagay Hamilton)
Jonathan Dubsky	...	Student at Green Party
David Francis	...	Dr. Davis
Neil Patrick Harris	...	Will
Rhiannon Moller-Trotter	...	Halloween Partygoer
Steve Godin	...	Junkie
Gio Perez	...	Victor

Storyline

In the Buckeston Academy High School, the wealthy, arrogant, narcissist and bigot Kyle Kingson is a student that does not respect his classmates. When Kyle is elected representative of the students, he plays a prank with the outcast Kendra that has the fame of being a witch. He invites her to a party and humiliates her in front of their classmates. However, Kendra curses him with a spell that makes Kyle as ugly as his soul. Further, she tells that if he does not find anyone who loves him within a year, he will be doomed to that appearance forever. When Kyle's father Rob Kingson sees him, he takes Kyle to specialists but the doctors do not know what to do. So Rob hides Kyle in an apartment with a maid and a blind tutor. When Kyle sees his mate Lindy on the streets, he saves her from a dangerous drug dealer and he brings her to his apartment to protect her. Now his only hope is that Lindy falls in love with him.

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Plot Keywords:

love | student | high school | curse | blind | 

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Taglines:

Love is never ugly

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Genres:

Drama | Fantasy | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for language including some crude comments, drug references and brief violence

Details

Official Sites:

CBS Films [us] Official site [de]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

4 March 2011 (USA)

Also Known As:

Beastly - Schau in sein wahres Gesicht

Filming Locations:

Pont Pierre Laporte, Québec, Québec, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$17,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£553,069 (UK) (22 April 2011)

Gross:

$27,854,896 (USA) (13 May 2011)

Company Credits

Production Co:

CBS Films, Storefront Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

86 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Lindsay Lohan was offered the role of Kendra, but turned it down. Mary-Kate Olsen was eventually cast for the part.

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Goofs

When he shows her the roof top greenhouse she stands in front of the open door, then the camera view changes and he door is closed.

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Quotes

Lindy: I'm worthy of you.
Kyle: What?
Lindy: I - It's what white roses mean.

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Connections

Version of Shirley Temple's Storybook: Beauty and the Beast (1958)

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Soundtracks

"Garden Of Exile"
Written and Performed by Toby Martin
Courtesy of Ivy League Records

User Reviews

More beast than beauty

"If he could learn to love another, and earn her love in return by the time the last petal fell, then the spell would be broken. If not, he would be doomed to remain a beast for all time." Disney's Beauty and the Beast

After the Twilight Series, I am Number Four, and now Beastly, I'm not sure I ever want to take that Hot Tub Time Machine back to those love-weary days. I mean, are these kids getting any love these days, or is their passion filtering through cell phones as their fingers do the walking rather than the stroking? Beastly once again shows teen longing relieved by the workings of magic, not old-fashioned getting-to-know you stuff their grandparents labored through.

Kyle (Alex Pettyfer straight from his boring turn as a hunk with little affect in I am Number Four) learns from his distant dad that looks are what count in life. As he imputes this "aggressively-unattractive" characterization to Goth Kendra (Mary-Kate Olsen), she condemns him to being all he hates, largely ugly, until someone says "I love you" to him.

Beauty waiting to be rescued, Lindy (Vanessa Hudgens), falls into the protective custody of now ugly Beast, Hunter (Kyle). And there you have Beauty and the Beast revived for 2011 teens. Dramatically the audience can anticipate every outcome, not just because of the adapted classic's well-worn story, but because the dialogue is pedestrian enough to telescope it all anyway.

The blind tutor, Will (Neil Patrick Harris), has some wry commentary, suited to the off-beat characters Harris usually plays, that saves this adolescent sentimental claptrap from my damnation. I get it that beauty is from within; I just don't buy why all the teens should be hot when most in real life are pimpled and gawky. It's too bad some wizardry couldn't save Beastly from mediocrity—but then I would need resuscitation that I finally had a teen weeper worthy of an audience smarter than filmmakers give them credit.