beauty and the beast (2017)

Note: I watched this movie while on my flight back to Philly from Paris, and studies somewhere show that we are more likely to cry during movies on airplanes because we're in an in between state, at once leaving and going. I literally teared up almost every time Emma Watson started singing not because she is good at singing at all (her voice was autotuned to heck) but because she is literally the UK's sweetheart and goddess! Ugh!!!!!

stop being cute emma just stop

This movie did a great job of retelling the classic story while making the effort to make Belle, the bookworm protagonist, pretty awesome. I got super emotional during the entire "little town" music sequence - how can you not, when the song is about feeling like you are trapped within a certain order and dreaming of something more, you're not sure what it is exactly but you trust that it is out there, aka "there must be more than this provincial liiiiiiiiife!" I enjoyed the verses they added during which Belle derides the idea of being Gaston's "little wife" and runs to the hilltops - very Sound of Music. The storyline about Belle's mother was also a surprise tearjerker!

Of course, a big chunk of my emotional reaction came from the fact that I find so much joy in musicals and in the way music can illustrate and heighten certain emotions in the listener so much better than words can on their own. As a musical, the movie also allows me to suspend a little bit of disbelief as to the overall plot as I indulge in the romance of the music, without which I would have found it much harder to buy into the narrative. Sure, it's satisfying to see Belle escape from the little town that she feels stifled and threatened in, but she trades it in for a wealthy, handsome prince who only had to woo a lonely bookworm with his giant you know what. And by you know what I mean library full of books. It really wasn't that much of a struggle?? Yeah, this plot was never very good. My brother mentioned that he read that the story suggests that the act of loving itself can be positively transformative, that we become beautiful as a result of being loved and not the other way around. I like that, but somehow it didn't feel like the movie did enough to convince me of that particular narrative.

Overall this movie worked for what it was - Beauty and the Beast, slightly more feminist with several black people in the cast. Cute!