Beautiful (2000)

User Rating:

4.4/10   

Director:

Sally Field

Writer (WGA):

Jon Bernstein (written by)

Release Date:

29 September 2000 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Comedy

Tagline:

Sometimes you have to give up the life of your dreams, to discover the dream of your life.

Plot:

Mona sacrifices everything, including family, in pursuit of a beauty pageant victory. Her friend Ruby helps her to an amazing degree.

Plot Keywords:

Beauty Pageant | Friendship | Family Secret | Secret Parent | Pantyhose

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Minnie Driver	...	Mona Hibbard
Joey Lauren Adams	...	Ruby
Hallie Kate Eisenberg	...	Vanessa
Kathleen Turner	...	Verna Chickle
Leslie Stefanson	...	Joyce Parkins
Bridgette Wilson	...	Lorna Larkin, Miss Texas (as Bridgette L. Wilson)
Kathleen Robertson	...	Wanda Love, Miss Tennessee
Michael McKean	...	Lance DeSalvo
Gary Collins	...	Miss American Miss Host
Linda Hart	...	Nedra Hibbard
Brent Briscoe	...	Lurdy
Colleen Rennison	...	Mona at 12
Jacqueline Steiger	...	Ruby at 12
Sylvia Short	...	Alberta
Herta Ware	...	Clara

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for language and thematic elements.

Runtime:

112 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Australia:PG | Germany:6 | Hong Kong:IIA | USA:PG-13 (certificate #37375)

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles Center Studios - 450 S. Bixel Street, Downtown, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Destination Films

Trivia:

Bridgette Wilson who plays Miss Texas was actually once Miss Teen USA.

Goofs:

Factual errors: Based on the timeline of the movie, Mona would be at least 27 years old when she is in the Miss America Miss pageant, making her too old for most National pageants such as Miss America.

Quotes:

Lorna Larkin: I'm Lorna Larkin, Miss Texas. I'm a magna cum laude graduate from the University of Texas with a double degree in genetic engineering and cosmetology.

Movie Connections:

References "The Oprah Winfrey Show" (1986)

Soundtrack:

Lobster Tango

Portrait of superficiality

BEAUTIFUL (2000) * Minnie Driver, Joey Lauren Adams, Hallie Kate Eisenberg, Leslie Stefanson, Bridgette L. Wilson, Kathleen Turner, Ali Landry, Michael McKean. (Dir: Sally Field) I wish I could say something nice about Sally Field's big screen directorial debut but through no fault of her own (except accepting this god-awful comedy/drama to do just that) the film is a complete disaster.

Mona (Driver, who co-produced with her sister Kate) is a white trash young woman desperately attempting to achieve her life-long desire of becoming a beauty contestant winner of the Miss America pageant and spends the entire length of her life (and the film) in doggedly determined to do just that.

Unfortunately during her quest she gets pregnant and for reasons never fully explained (except the given that she is extremely selfish) has the child raised by her long-suffering best friend, Ruby (Adams), a nurse in an old folks' home, who stands by Mona through thick and thin. Gradually little Vanessa (Eisenberg, the moppet from those Pepsi commercials), begins to put two and two together and when Ruby is suddenly thrown in jail (for murder! Yes the plotting is ridiculous; seems one of her charges was saving up on her daily meds and finally overdosed unbeknownst to Ruby) Mona is faced with her greatest challenge: facing her daughter.

The film has not one shred of grace or subtlety. For example, with Vanessa as her new hurdle to overcome, what does Mona do. Get a lawyer, get a job, feed the tyke? No. She gets a camera and has the girl take candids of her for the upcoming big event and in one of the many cringe worthy moments finds herself assisting a pregnant woman's delivery in a supermarket, singing 'Wind Beneath My Wings' (!) The tone of the character is so mean-spirited that ultimately you don't care one iota if she succeeds in becoming a winner (she is so obsessed with this that nothing else matters in her life) and I actually loathed her for her displays of self-absorption and greed.

It was sickening and by the film's outrageous conclusion that Mona sees the errors of her way totally rings false and feels superfluous to the rest of the film.

Field, who obviously is one of our most talented actresses, should deserve better projects and one can only hope she will. As for Driver, another equally gifted actress, she had better get it into her head that there is no audience for a character that has no scruples, heart or affection for another character. If this was meant to be a black comedy then it completely misses the mark altogether.