DVD: Divine Viewing Diversions
For your home-viewing pleasure, here are three strongly likable titles well worth seeking out, each originally released theatrically in the spring – a musical, a horror thriller, and a family drama.
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (PG)
First things first:
Is the live-action reimagining of the animated classic, “Beauty and the Beast,” as entertaining, as entrancing, as satisfying as its predecessor?
Well, no, not quite. But it’s close. And, besides, how many movies are?
Movies don’t come much more accomplished, distinctive, or even historic than the 1991 gem.
Remember, the earlier version of this tale as old as time set in a French village was the first feature to marry animation to the Broadway musical, the first animated feature to earn more than $100 million, the first animated feature to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Picture, and a four-time Academy Award nominee that won two Oscars – for Best Score and Best Song.
As an early part of this Golden Age of Animation, this was perhaps the supreme achievement, a sweep-you-off-your-feet salute to the art of animation, the science of songwriting, and the magic of moviemaking.
That is a lot to live up to.
As a mix of real settings, live actors, and computer animation, the new, lavish “Beauty and the Beast” has a few awkward moments, but many more that transport and delight us in ways not unlike that of the earlier version. For the most part, it’s a lovingly crafted, strongly effective musical romantic fantasy.
But one that viewers less familiar with the 1991 film will be even more dazzled by. That’s because the rest of us will not be able to avoid comparing or confronting the realization that this movie can appear cluttered or overstuffed, leading to a more-is-less letdown.
Director Bill Condon (“Gods and Monsters,” “Kinsey,” “Dreamgirls,” “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Parts 1 and 2,” “Mr. Holmes”) works from a script by Stephen Chbosky and Evan Spiliotopoulos that stays pretty close to what we remember but includes a bit of tweaking.
Emma Watson (of “Harry Potter” fame) as the wistful, proactive Belle with Dan Stevens (of “Downton Abbey” fame) as the intimidating, bitter Beast gives the film two strong leads. And they’re supported by Kevin Kline as Belle’s father, Luke Evans as Gaston, and Josh Gad as LeFou, while Ewan McGregor as Lumiere, Ian McKellen as Cogsworth, Emma Thompson as Mrs. Potts, Stanley Tucci as Cadenza, Audra McDonald as Madame Garderobe, Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Plumette, and Nathan Mack as Chip give voice to the enchanted household objects that are such a big part of this familiar fairytale.
Once again, we get all the songs written by composer Alan Menken and the late lyricist Howard Ashman, and three new ones – not particularly impactful or memorable – by Menken and lyricist Tim Rice that embellish the story about the cursed prince who finds himself in a nonhuman state and must find true love before the final petal falls from a rose.
It’s a great fable, it speaks to everyone, and it richly deserves the multiple renderings it’s getting in the modern era.
So, have at it.
“Beauty and the Beast” is another beautiful movie feast.
LIFE (R)
So how much life is there in “Life”?
Plenty, even though it’s an unapologetic knockoff, but one that’s intensely suspenseful enough to scare us silly.
The classic science-fiction horror thriller “Alien” is the template here, which suggests that if you’re gonna steal, steal from the best.
But imitating another movie isn’t such a bad idea if you can virtually replicate it as well as this one does.
And if “Alien” is about as terrifying as a movie can get, “Life” comes remarkably close to that mark.
This movie is scary.
A six-member crew of scientists and astronauts on an international space station performs the successful capture of a space probe returning from Mars with a sample inside.
They’re ordered to retrieve and study the sample, which could lead to an astonishing and exciting discovery, certainly one of the most important in human history: The first evidence that there is extraterrestrial life out there.
But as the crew members begin to conduct research, their methods end up having unintended consequences because of the imposing strength, shocking intelligence and rapid growth of the hostile life form.
They are, then, trapped aboard the space station with this instantly evolving organism and realize that they must figure out a way to kill it if they hope to survive.
See what I mean? The producers of “Alien” just called: They want their premise back.
Yep, here’s a movie that might as well have used the catchphrase, “In space, no one can hear you plagiarize.”
Or, to put it another way, would John Hurt have been able to stomach this clone?
That is to say: There’s homage, there’s cribbing, and then there’s highway robbery. And “Life” might be doing all three.
And yet ... and yet. There is certainly something to be said for skilled execution, with or without originality.
Ryan Reynolds and Jake Gyllenhaal lead the efficiently game cast, and they’re joined by Rebecca Ferguson, Hiroyuki Sanada, Olga Dihovichnaya, and Ariyon Bakare.
Spanish director Daniel Espinosa (“Safe House,” “Child 44”), summoning astonishingly convincing special effects, works from a screenplay by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, who collaborated on “Deadpool” and “Zombieland.” But whereas those two films had strong comedic spines, “Life” is intensely sober. And the better for it.
Here’s a genre piece that goes about its business with maximum efficiency and, as familiar as the setup is, somehow manages to avoid predictability as well.
Will wonders never cease?
Some movies know exactly what they are, don’t try to be anything more than a generic treasure, and deliver the goods in high style.
Like the song says, that’s “Life.”
GIFTED (PG-13)
Given that it’s a movie about a math prodigy, “Gifted” better add up.
Happily, it does.
“Gifted” is a life-size drama about a troubled single man, Frank Adler, played by “Captain America” Chris Evans, a boat repairman living in a coastal town in Florida who, following the sudden death of his sister, is raising his sassy 6-year-old niece, Mary, a child prodigy played by Mckenna Grace, on his own and according to his late sister’s instructions.
But his child-rearing skills are being called into question because he’s being drawn into a custody battle with his mother, Evelyn, played by Lindsay Duncan, who wants to raise Mary and put her gifted mind to use.
That gift is an astounding genius at mathematics, which makes Mary a pawn in the conflict between her uncle and her maternal grandmother as they fight over her guardianship.
Meanwhile, Jenny Slate plays Mary’s first-grade teacher, who believes strongly that Mary needs more of an intellectual challenge than she is getting if her intelligence is to expand, and who becomes romantically involved with Frank; and Octavia Spencer is Frank’s neighbor and friend, who serves as somewhat of a mother figure for Mary.
What all the people in Mary’s life are struggling with, whether they know it or not, is to determine which lifestyle is the better fit for Mary.
Director Marc Webb, working from Tom Flynn’s low-key and smartly pleasing script about what’s best for a gifted child, started small-scale (“500 Days of Summer”), then went large-scale (“The Amazing Spider-Man,” “The Amazing Spider-Man 2”), and hereby returns to effective and comfortable life-size moviemaking.
“Gifted” is a sensitive, sensible, tasteful piece, familiar and convincing but not predictable, that engages us with its characters, its dialogue and its conflicts without raising its voice all that much and without employing a generic villain.
And, yes, it is also a tearjerker, but the heartstring tugs are organic, the tears both earned and justified.
As for Evans, given some time off from superhero duty to display accessible warmth, he does splendidly with his down-to-earth role, as does the film’s real find, Mckenna Grace, who, at her tender age (she turned 11 in June), can already deliver a line with the best of them.
What we have here is an admirable custody drama that’s absorbing, amusing, and – most important – moving. In short, “Gifted” uplifted.
