Beastly Review (3.5/5)

Don't worry, this romance is a very different kind of beast.
Every film Alex Pettyfer is involved with seems to be cursed nowadays, and in this case his latest movie has fallen under a literal spell. Thankfully, though, the ugliness of Beastly is limited only to some basic narrative stereotypes, and it's actually courtersy of Pettyfer and Vannessa-Anne Hudgens that we get one of the best teenage romance-dramas I've seen in a good while. The story is fairly similar to the classic fairly tale and Disney animation, telling the tale of a teenage boy cursed with a beastly (see what I did there?) exterior after he becomes too dependent on his looks to get by in life, and who now must find true love before the year is up in order to cure himself. Were this a by-the-books retelling with talking cutlery and all, I'd have to deduct a few more points from that score, but it's a good omen that the writers have set this in an undeniably contemporary New York, where we get scenes of (minor) violence and conflict to represent the real world rather than the fantasy setting of the the classic 1991 kids' flick. The direction isn't half bad either, taking cues from some of the greats like Yates and Spielberg in pitching some of the over-long romance shots by lakes, candlelight and zoo exhibits, and the soundtrack is standard rom-guff, neither daring nor alienating. It really is down to Pettyfer and Hudgens to keep the movie afloat among a few blatant character stereotypes- the African housemaid who longs for her children to get the passes to immigrate; the blind mentor who encourages 'Hunter' to pursue his crush, you've seen it all before- and they manage it brilliantly, pitching their on-screen romance perfectly with a couple chemistry unheard of in many cheesy love flicks of recent years. Beastly stands, then, as a great realisation of the modern romance film, not revolutionary in any sense of the word but still a flick with plenty of heart, and I for once wouldn't mind seeing its cast return for a sequel or a spin-off, as there's plenty of interesting storylines to be developed from this world!