The Pleasures of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

Disney is making gold out of its animated classics like The Jungle Book and now Beauty and the Beast, a glorious, live action remake featuring a captivating performance by Emma Watson who has grown leaps and bounds from her Harry Potter years.

Once upon a time, a girl, Belle (Watson), has dreams beyond her village and is desired by a narcissistic Gaston (Luke Evans).  When her father (Kevin Kline, always a delight) disappears, she searches for him and finds an obscure, cursed castle ruled by an angry beast (Dan Stevens) with a haunted past that only her love can redeem.  

This is a dream supporting cast (Ewan McGregor, Ian McKellen, Emma Thompson, and Audra McDonald) among many more who spend a good portion of the story as animated-inanimate objects who are given emotional poignancy. Josh Gad almost steals the film as Gaston’s feisty companion. (The film also makes a point of integrating its entire cast to reflect a real, inclusive world.) 

Director Bill Condon (Dreamgirls) knows how to make a good musical, and he takes the hallowed ground of the beloved,  animated feature and embellishes it into a gorgeous production enhanced by creative sets and costumes with stunning visual effects. Aside from a few tweaks to characters and subplot, nothing much has changed, and the two major set pieces in the original are given a grand reenactment:“Be Our Guest” and the title song. Alan Menken has adapted his original songs (written with the late Howard Ashman and Tim Rice) and score to great effect.

Beauty and the Beast  has (with La La Land ) resurrected the movie musical, and despite its legendary pedigree, this lush version is a joy. “Be our guest!”

**** of **** stars

LOGAN and Its Tortured Warrior

A very different take on Marvel super heroes by writer/director James Mangold, Logan is a dark reinvention of the X Men mythology with an intense performance by Hugh Jackman.

Set in Texas in 2029, Logan (Jackman), formerly Wolverine, is a limo driver who cares for an elderly Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), the telepath whose unfettered bouts of dementia threaten to wreak destruction.  This is a bleak world with mutants nearly extinct. When a girl, Laura (Dafne Keen), who may have special abilities, is thrust into their existence, the trio forms a makeshift family of sorts. Not far behind, a military group emerges to study mutant powers and more.  This leads to a desperate cross-country pursuit to a refuge called Eden which may or may not exist and a brutal confrontation between good versus evil as Logan battles overwhelming numbers and firepower. 

The actions scenes are startlingly effective; this is a more vivid, graphic depiction of violence and language.  The mood is somber and Logan is a man in pain, an alcoholic trying to forget his past and dealing mental and physical wounds that reduce him to a pale shadow of his former self.  Being very reluctant to help anyone else outside of Charles, it is the relationship between Logan and Laura that drives the story.

With direct references to Shane, the film has an emotional, touching end with a memorable, symbolic act.  This is one terrific, yet elegiac vision of great Marvel characters done with ferocity.

Forget the end credits-this one has a marvelous, pre-movie teaser not to be missed. 

***1/2 of **** stars  (add 1/2 * for Marvel fans)