I was compelled against my desire and better judgment to watch the movie Beastly yesterday. I came away from the movie with strong feeling that something needs to be said about this production that isn't in the formal reviews.
The movie is adapted and directed by Daniel Barnz, and is derived from the Alex Flinn novel of the same name. The story revolves around the self absorbed teenage son of a successful local newscaster named Kyle Kingson (Alex Pettyfer) who is attractive, intelligent and very wealthy. He runs for class office in his exclusive, private high school. Kyle has no desire to actually fulfill the obligations or responsibilities of the office, and plainly states so. Instead he admits he only intends to use it to bolster his resume and solicits votes from his classmates on the merits of his good looks alone. It's a close race and to secure victory he demeans the other candidate, Kendra (Mary-Kate Olsen), a plain, tattooed, Goth classmate who also professes to be a witch. He demeans her by casting aspersions on her appearance and occult practices. She responds by defacing his campaign posters with negative comments. Caught up in the campaign is Lindy (Vanessa Hudgens), who meets Kyle in person for the first time in their three years of high school and feel drawn to Kyle, but is too far removed from him by the school's social order to realize her hopes to build a relationship with him.
As background to the main story, Kyle and his newscaster father, Rob Kingson (Peter Krause), share a ritzy downtown apartment but communicate very little due to his father's obsession with his newscaster career. Though living in close proximity, their relationship is so distant that Kyle is even unsuccessful in communicating to his father his success in winning the school election. Frustrated, he invites Kendra out to the school prom and she accepts. But his intention becomes clear when he leaves her ticket less at the entrance, and rejects her with a vicious personal attack on her looks. This sets the stage for her act of revenge. Jilted, she reacts by cursing him and casting a magical spell on Kyle that changes his handsome looks into a reflection of his real inner person: a freak, defiled and defaced by tattoos, piercings and numerous hideous scars over most of his body but especially his face.
Horrified at the transformation, Kyle's father hides him in an elegant riverfront townhouse in Brooklyn and assigns their Jamaican housekeeper (Lisa Gay Hamilton) and a blind tutor (Neil Patrick Harris) to care for him. However, the father does not accompany his son, but distances himself from the ugliness after he fails to find a medical cure for it. Kyle at first responds hopefully to his father's help, but when the father isolated himself from the son, the son turns his anger and frustration on the housekeeper and tutor.
Desperate to discover a cure, Kyle confronts the witch Kendra and demands to know how to break the spell. She blithely informs him that she can't break it. However, he can if he can find true love before a year is completed.
After exhausting other avenues, Kyle realizes he must win the heart of his only sincere admirer, Lindy. To learn more about the pretty, working class, scholarship student, he stalks her around her neighborhood to learn more about her and the company she keeps. One night he sees them confronted by drug pushers who demand money from Lindy's addict father. Kyle intervenes when they threaten violence. He rescues Lindy from the assault and witnesses her father kill one of the dealers and the other threaten harm to Lindy in retaliation. Kyle sees an opportunity to exploit the situation and makes a bargain with Lindy's father to keep her safe with him or turn the father in to the authorities for committing murder. Reluctantly, the father agrees to the deal with the hideous stranger.
Lindy takes refuge in Brooklyn with Kyle, his housekeeper and the tutor. Fitfully they sort out the details of the arrangement over the course of the year that Kyle has to break the spell. Kyle learns that his wealth isn't enough to impress the girl and she learns to trust Kyle.
The year comes nearly to a close when Lindy insists she must leave to take part in a trip to Machu Picchu she has prepared for years. Kyle is torn between his need to break the curse, feeling he is close to winning her heart, and the responsibility to respect her free will. At a critical moment, her father suffers a heart attack and Kyle reluctantly sends her home alone but gives her a lengthy love letter he has written. On parting she expresses gratitude and friendship, but not the love Kyle desperately needs. He is crushed and retreats into isolation as the date for the trip and the deadline for breaking the spell approaches.
On the crucial day, the housekeeper and tutor persuade him to make one more effort. Kyle leaves his sanctuary and meets Lindy at the school and confronts her among a crowd of students there. The result is predictable in that she understands him and responds to his profession of love with a kiss just before leaving for the departure bus. Kyle, unrecognized by his classmates, leaves the school grounds and then is magically transformed to his old self. Lindy meanwhile decides the trip isn't her first priority and returns to look for 'Hunter,' the nome de plume of Kyle's alter ego. The meet again, and with some difficulty Kyle convinces her of his true identity. The scene concludes with the teens embracing in newfound love. The movie concludes with Ron Kingson meeting his new co-anchor, who turns out to be Kendra, the witch.
All that said, my analysis is as follows. This appears on the surface to be a modern remake of the classic "Beauty and the Beast." Essentially a witch curses a powerful but self-centered prince with a hideous appearance and he must find true love in a fixed time of be so cursed forever. A beautiful, young and low-born maiden comes under his control and develop a romance that breaks the spell just in time.
What is fundamentally wrong about both stories is that in both cases it is selfless love alone that breaks the power of evil. What mention there is of the grace of God in Jesus Christ is peripheral and negative. This movie goes further and portrays the occult as a force for good ends. The character Kendra enters the plot as a campaigner for green environmentalism and plays the role of the good-sport losing candidate wronged by the establishment winner. She becomes an informal counselor to Kyle as he seeks to escape the consequences of his deeds and then triumphs with appointment to a position of mass influence. This is clearly an attempt to paint the occult in a positive, beneficial light.
The witch even intervenes on behalf of the immigrant housekeeper and blind tutor to arrange residency for the dependent family of the former and sight for the latter. This is a fantasy-land, all-good, happy ending for a plot that ignores the reality of the consequences of sin and magic. It's a typical strategy of the devil to dress up his works to appeal to our real needs while working out his real and inimical purposes.
It is a well established truth that we suffer the consequences of our sins as Kyle did for his pride and cruelty by becoming vulnerable to the devil's devices. That's true enough. But our good works and even selfless love are not enough to redeem us. Only faith in Christ's redemptive works can do that. The movie ignores that and thereby misleads its audience. While evil does have the effect of perfecting good in their temporal struggle, it is not something that may be safely consulted or compromised with. And any good works it accomplishes are at the price of far greater good destroyed in the process.
This movie is clearly a vehicle that takes a popular and accepted theme and saddles it with an endorsement of the occult and tacit acceptance of the Gothic culture as normal segment of society, neither of which is true. It also throws in rather transparent endorsements for the PC causes of environmentalism and diversity through the involvement of the characters in the green cause and Lindy’s planned trip to the ancient Inca capital. Both the occult and aberrant culture must be met with selfless love empowered by faith and transforming grace that comes from Christ alone. Environmentalism and cultural diversity are dead ends that address only symptoms of sin and not the root cause of their activities, estrangement from God.
That said I will give credit where credit is due. The cinematography, acting and story line are all professionally done. Aside from occasional crude language, a couple violent scenes and one scene with fully clothed teens making out the film is remarkably free of explicit violence, sex and profanity. While commendable in its own right, this adds to my disappointment that considerable resources and talent were invested in such a fruitless vehicle.
If I were to try to make it better, the conflict between good an evil would be moved to arena where it belongs: between Christ and Satan. Repentance and the transforming power of the Holy Spirit would be central and given proper credit. The unmitigated, destructive nature of evil would be clearly and explicitly dealt with. Dead-end causes would be shown in their true nature. Miracles would have their origin in real faith and justice. In particular, I would have Kyle lose the benefit of his wealth along with the rest of his advantages and be brought to the place where he acknowledges his need of a savior and yield to the purposes of God. Lindy would not be forced into captivity and she would chose Kyle over a perfectly good alternative suitor rather than an abstract dream. Kendra would suffer the backlash of using occult powers and Rob would be inspired by the transformation in his son’s life to reform his own. Is that too ideal for today’s audiences? I hope not.
My final word on the subject is to not recommend that the movie be viewed or recommended for any purpose, especially by youth to whom it is clearly targeted. It is a waste of time and patronizing it only fuels the source of this error.
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