Beauty and the Beast: A Latter-day Tale (2007)

by Tristi Pinkston | More from this Blogger

15 Aug 2007 04:00 PM

I like to support the LDS film industry as they strive to make family friendly and yet entertaining films. With the release of "Beauty and the Beast: A Latter-day Tale," another installment has been added to the everlasting drama that seems to be the LDS film market.

Summer Naomi Smart stars as Belle, a young woman who lives with her father, little sister, and little brother. Her mother passed away a few years previously, forcing her to return home from college to help care for the family. Her father has struggled to find work and at last, has landed a job doing repairs.

While working at the home of Eric Landry, Belle's father accidentally breaks an expensive vase. Enraged, Eric promises to call the company the next day and have Belle's father fired. When Belle hears the news, she decides to do something about it and goes to see Mr. Landry (Matthew Reese) begging him not to place the call. Eric makes her a deal - if she'll come work for him as his personal assistant, he won't call.

Eric is known as "the beast" in their town. He's rude to everyone he meets, he yells at clerks and employees, he shows no compassion. Belle's not crazy about going to work for him, but as she comes to know him, she realizes that his rough exterior is hiding a lot of pain, and he needs time to heal.

I didn't find much of the acting convincing. Large sections of dialogue seemed memorized and unnatural, and I probably would have traded out about half the cast. In addition, I didn't find Belle's religious statements as convincing as we are led to believe - in the end, Eric tells her that her example has changed his life, and yet when we've seen her talk about the gospel, the dialogue seems to be lacking the "oomph" you'd expect a life-changing conversation to have. I found myself editing and tweaking in my mind as we went.

That said, I did enjoy much of the story. I've liked Summer since I saw her star as Esther in "Esther and the King" and I see much in store for her future. I just would have liked to have seen this film tightened up a little - they began with good intentions but the execution left some to be desired.

This film was rated PG.

Related Blogs:

Rigoletto

Beauty

Learn more about Tristi Pinkston

I've been a blogger for Families.com since August of 2006.

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