A Thing of Beauty

Rating: 7/10 (30 March 2017)

The live action update of the Oscar-nominated Disney animation, Bill Condon's re-imagining is a sweet, thoughtful and emotional film with clear themes of empowerment, feminism and individuality.
Emma Watson is perfectly cast as Belle and her singing is a real show-stealer throughout; as are Luke Evans and Josh Gad as the comedic yet villainous duo of Gaston and Lefue, respectively. On the flip side, Dan Stevens as the Beast leaves a lot to be desired (not in a good way), particularly in terms of his - albeit, limited - singing.
The songs remain as catchy as ever and are beautifully (and expensively) choreographed on screen with seamless combinations of live action, CGI and what often appears as one shot camera work.
Despite its 2hr 9min runtime however, the plot seems somewhat rushed and bare bones at times. Admittedly, this is based on an existing Disney property and storyline, so screenwriters were shackled in many ways to the original material but the plot really felt like it could have done with more back story around the Beast/Princes' troubled childhood and how this fully justified his conduct as an adult (a la Frozen).
All in all though, this is a greatly enjoyable musical take on the classic story which very much has its heart in the right place and isn't scared to pitch at both young and older audience members.