Belle (Andrea Snædal) lives with her father (Gudmunder Thorvaldsson) who is very ill. Looking for a cure, she hears of a mythical red rose which is said to put an end to death. She searches until she finally finds it in a dark cave, but the person who owns it will only grant Belle her wish if she stays with him in exchange. So, Belle and The Beast (Ingi Hrafn Hilmarsson) get to know each other and over time she starts to see the goodness inside him.
Belle is a retelling of the tale of Beauty and The Beast, given a more grounded approach by writer/director Max Gold. Set in Iceland many years ago, Belle gives the movie’s aesthetic an old world feel which compliments its fairytale origins.
The title character of the movie is also nothing like the adaptations that have come before. This is no Disney story and Belle is quite happy with her provincial life, thank you very much. However, in retelling such a familiar story and attempting to give it a few twists, it feels like director Gold has missed the point entirely.
Although the prologue does set up the story as we have always imagined it, it seems that budgetary constraints may have forced the filmmakers to tell the story from a different angle. This means that Belle becomes accustomed to The Beast’s ways quite easily and even tries to test out his limits.
The moral of the story is also meant to be that you should always judge somebody by their character and not by how they appear. However, in Belle, The Beast is portrayed without the makeup and imposing figure of an animal. This means that Hilmarsson’s portrayal makes him more of a bad boy that Belle simply wants to tame.
The pacing is also very slow, something of which would be more pleasant if director Gold took more advantage of Iceland’s natural beauty. Instead, a lot of that time is spent in fields, houses and caves. Whereas the cinematography is still beautiful, it feels like a missed opportunity.
Those looking for a faithful adaptation that reminds them of the wonders of Disney will be disappointed. However, it seems that those looking for something more subversive may be put off by Belle not really adding anything to Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve’s original fable.
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