The Beautician and the Beast

This is such an adorable movie. Fran Drescher absolutely blew me away, I had no idea she was so talented -- in this movie she absolutely shines!! Her character "Joy Miller" is the Nanny all over again...but this time she has been hired (mistakenly) to teach the four children of a eastern-European dictator. She has amazing comic timing and plays well of off co-star Timothy Dalton, who is a wonderful President of Slovetzia, the tiny (made-up) country that most of the movie takes place in. He is at once a pompous and loveable character...his transformation from Beast to Man is a delight to watch. The plot is a mixture of "The Sound of Music," "The King and I," "Beauty and the Beast," and a kind of twisted Cinderella...but it all meshes together for an endearing (though very predictable) movie. A change from Tim Dalton's usual dramatic/spy movie genre...who knew he could be so funny? But he is, and the movie is adorable and I would highly recommend this if your a fan of Fran Drescher, Tim Dalton or romantic comedies in general!!

I was apprehensive when this film came on TV, but as there was nothing else on and I was bored I decided to give it a go. It began badly as I found Fran Drescher incredibly annoying, mainly due to her piercing New York accent. Timothy Dalton was fantastic in his role, and made me laugh a number of times. Ian McNeice was also quite good in what was essentially just a rehash of his role in Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls. The script wasn't excellent but did the job. The film did begin to lose momentum as Timothy Dalton became less beast-ly and the film is about half an hour too long, but those are really the only bad points. This film isn't a work of art, but it provides nice escapism for two hours. 6/10.

While I won't say that this is an excellent movie, I still like it for its irreverent sense of humor. The acting's pretty average, there seem to be so many plots going on at the same time, but it still makes for an entertaining and interesting watch, if only to see the Nanny in her first major big-screen role. She brings the trademark we know so well to the movie - her nasal voice and pre-occupation with the trivial stuff, but she also brings a kind of sensitivity we've never seen before in the Nanny series.

I quite like some of the scenes - how she teaches the kids what she knows (airline miles), the massage scene, the home-coming, and a lot of others that just seem to be made just for her.

I have to admit that, for a while anyway, I had a serious crush on Fran Drescher. Those outfits (in Joe's chauvinistic voice): "OH, YEAH!!!" That big '80's hair. And that voice (except when she got whiny)??? Uh-huh-huh! Uh-huh-huh!

"The Nanny" was a good show, though not great. It was raunchy and funny, though, to me (and maybe this is me being more old-fashioned than I'll admit), raunchy sex jokes do not go together with family entertainment. Thus, I was always convinced that it was in a bad time slot. NBC doesn't show "Law & Order" at 8:00 (or 7:00 if you're in Mississippi like me).

Nitpickiness aside, when I heard that she was doing a movie titled "The Beautician and the Beast," I was quite skeptical. I didn't think that it would be any good. But I sucked up any doubts I had and saw it anyway.

I have to admit that, while it's not the best, it's not the worst, either. I actually liked this movie. Granted, the movie is VERY dated (for the most part, Communism is dead), quite predictable (can you say "The Nanny?") and can get downright stupid (what's with the chicken?).

But it can also be funny, like when Joy, Fran's character, gets the workers to strike, in the tradition of Norma Rae, thus angering Boris Pochenko, played adequately by Timothy Dalton. And there were a lot of raunchy references to her relatives, i.e. one of her aunts having to have facial hair removed. And, without giving anything away, I thought the begining was really cute as well.

Not to mention that I was really impressed with a scene near the end of the film where she stands up to Boris. To me, it sounded as if she was really acting, speaking past her quirky voice and speaking the lines with gusto. That may explain how she got a part in a Woody Allen movie, even if it's a bit part.

This film isn't for everybody, especially if you're put off by Fran's voice. And, though there are no sex scenes, there are benign sexual references, not to mention mild language. Others might say "bring the whole family," but I wouldn't. While *I* think she's funny (like I said before), I believe her humor is too raunchy for family entertainment. And some of her humor deals with generalizations, which may explain why you don't see her being compared to Julia Roberts, Jennifer Lopez or Rene Russo, strong women who aren't afraid to be "one of the boys."

Yes, it *is* just "The King and I" meets "The Sound of Music" meets "The Nanny", but what's wrong with that? Those formulas (formulae?) were all successful and so it this one if you sit back and enjoy it for what it is - just a fluffy romantic comedy.

(To some of the other reviewers:) Don't take it so seriously! It's just a fairytale! Fran and Timothy play their parts well and look like they're having a ball.