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, Vanessa Hudgens, Mary-Kate Olsen

1 win & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Alex Pettyfer	...	Kyle
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
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

At the Buckeston Academy High School, the wealthy, arrogant, narcissistic, and bigoted Kyle Kingson is a student who does not respect his classmates. When Kyle is elected representative of the students, he plays a prank on the outcast Kendra, who has a reputation as 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 him 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 will fall in love with him.

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Plot Keywords:

tutor | maid | newscaster | the beast character | maurice character | 

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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 crude comments, brief violence and some thematic material

Details

Official Sites:

CBS Films [United States] Official site [Japan]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

4 March 2011 (USA)

Also Known As:

Sortilège

Filming Locations:

Pont Pierre Laporte, Québec, Québec, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$17,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$9,851,102, 6 March 2011, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$27,865,571

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$43,165,571

Company Credits

Production Co:

CBS Films, Mel's Cite du Cinema, Storefront Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

86 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Mary-Kate Olsen plays a witch in the film who performs sorcery. Olsen's younger sister Elizabeth Olsen would play Scarlet Witch, a telekinetic mutant, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

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Goofs

When Will is throwing darts, the darts change position between the clip where he's thrown them to when he goes to collect them.

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Quotes

Lindy: What can I say, I'm substance over style.

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Crazy Credits

The first part of the end credits show photos of Kyle and Lindy in Machu Picchu.

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Connections

References Devil Girl from Mars (1954)

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Soundtracks

Boys and Girls
Written by Murray Hauge, Pixie Lott (as Victoria Lott) and Phil Thornalley
Performed by Pixie Lott
Courtesy of Mercury Records Limited / Interscope Records
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User Reviews

It takes a teenager to admire this movie, perhaps

Didn't knew it's based on a novel before I saw the movie, and didn't know it's such a teen movie - pretty faces, college scenes - it makes me relate to Twilight, the storyline starts with how perfect the leading boy looks and leading girl seems to be mediocre only.

I didn't expect anything before the movie, I just saw the poster and found it interesting, thought it'd be some kind of a romance to have a girl falling in love with such a scar-faced man.

But the story didn't convince me how the beast and the beauty fall in love. To me, it just seems to be "written" in such way, Kyle and Lindy are just performing their roles as written in the screenplay, with not much emotions involved in acting. I don't see Kyle getting much upset turning from such flawless face (as he thought) to a seriously scar-faced; and Lindy not being surprised when she saw Kyle's face - as Hunter, a total stranger - this just doesn't quite make sense. I think the acting plays an important role in terms of touching audience's emotions and connection to the movie, but the casts in Beastly fail in such area. The leading casts maybe good with simple teen love story, but the storyline in Beastly seems to be a heavy topic for them to handle, so now it just appears to be a shallow love movie with no sentiments triggered.