I'll think of all that might have been

Rating: 5/10 (27 April 2017)

To cut things short - that's the classic Hollywood everybody wants to watch in the cinema: grandiose, sumptuous, high-quality production. Most chances you'd enjoy it enough to justify the ticket price. And yet, it feels like the fast-chain snack food.
In the marketing campaign and the overall reviews all you can hear is about the Beauty, yet almost nothing about the Beast. If that's not a sign of a grave and essential problem with the movie, I don't know what is. His character is supposed to propel the story on the par with Belle. Yet, her 2 ball gowns received more coverage than him – and frankly speaking, both of them were quite disappointing from my point of view. So, just for a change I'll try to concentrate here on Prince/Beast character.
I never heard about Dan Stevens before, so I had no idea where he came from and what to expect from him. Most of the movie he spends under some of the unsuccessful CGI effects, including alternating his voice. The results are uneven and not really convincing, to say the least. Pretty hard to tell who's to blame – the actor himself or the technological wizards. We'll probably never know.
Let's start with the fact that only on premier photos I noticed that Stevens has perfectly suited eyes for the role – exactly as in 1991 version, piercing, blue color. Yet I didn't notice it in the movie at all. I'm not talking about some silly girly crush, but about the fact that the movie never lets us see the characters eyes, the main tool for an actor to express the emotions on screen.
The CGI/prosthetic free part – let's start with the opening prologue which shows us the prince before the curse and how he deserved it. While, ludicrously over-top, reeking with decadence, opulence and some stupid grimacing on the Dan Stevens' part, it's simultaneously hauntingly effective about hour and half later. It's hard to understand at first, but until the transformation scene we never see prince's real face/appearance. He's covered by the heavy, peacock style make up, luxury clothes and over-indulgent wig. Just in case we didn't get that he's a vain, cold-hearted jerk, not worthy our sympathy. (Subtlety, as the singing, isn't the strong side of the movie). Cut through the rest of the movie till the transformation scene and unexpectedly I was smitten by the delicacy of it. Not a word spoken. The human again prince, in bewildered haze, turns to Belle and just stares at her, deeply breathing, scared to make the first move. Suddenly, you can see HIM. An absolutely changed person who "finally learned to love" . And the interaction between them, how they touch each other and finally kiss The movie hits its famous tag line purpose without any special effect, sophisticated dialog and special acting. For one little moment I was blown away by the fairy tale come to life.
But fear not, the next ending scenes successfully ruined the impression. The great celebration ball -another opulent, tasteless and overcrowded affair, just in brighter colors, and every peasant and servant participates this time. The supposedly madly in love couple barely registers somewhere in the middle of meaningless and polite dance, where he barely kisses her hand once. And she makes a joke. About him growing the beard! You see, him being stranded as a hideous beast for years of despair and utter pain (supposedly, isn't it?), now is a matter of laughter, smirks and joking growl. Which brings me to another, highly problematic issue, which wasn't mentioned so far. There isn't any physical believable interaction between the beast/prince and Belle. No buildup whatsoever. In the 1991 version you can constantly see how the beast treasures each moment Belle is in his arms, how he touches gently and playfully her hair when freeing her after the ball, and giving her the mirror. Love is naturally very physical without being vulgar and showy.
Here, except in 2 scenes - the quite flat in itself ball dance and the transformation scene I mentioned, it never happens. They walk and talk, glancing at each other from time to time. At best, hold hands like 2 hippies after shared joint (the reunion scene when the pair emerges to give some hugs to Lumier and Chip all of the sudden). I bet the 1991's cartoon didn't had to spent that much money on showing us, in the final scene, how deeply in love is the waltzing royal pair. They are the epicenter and the heart of the tale. They can't take their eyes of each other, while everyone's eyes are on them as well. Here? Nothing
Returning to the Mr. Stevens acting, I have to admit after all 2 important things. Unlike Watson, he knows how to move in period piece. You should just watch the way she picks up the dish to drink from, and the beast does the same after her, to understand what I mean.
Second –the guy probably isn't a great singer (it's hard to understand after auto tune and tinkering), like Josh Groban, yet he knows how to sing the character song. While tampered by bad directing choice in the movie (I didn't understand until reading some comments in Youtube, that all this weird jumping on the staircases was due to his desire to see Belle as long as possible) his singing solo left enough impression on me to go and check it on Youtube. Listening to it alone, via the headset, with random images from movie before my eyes, it was nothing less than revelation. I highly recommend you to listen yourself to Dan Stevens's version of Evermore on Youtube, close your eyes and imagine the movie you'd like to see with it. Then you'll understand why I summed up my review by the quote from it - I'll think of all that might have been