Beauty and the Beast (4 Stars)

This is a fairy tale that can warm the hearts of young and old alike. A beautiful young woman is held captive by an ugly looking beast, but she sees the tenderness in his heart and learns to love him. While not strictly a romantic comedy, it follows the rules of romantic comedies. There's no suspense in the film. Everything is predictable, we know from the beginning that there will be a happy ending, but does it matter? Of course not. In the magical world of fairy tales we always know that the heroes will live happily ever after.

Maybe I have a twisted sense of aesthetics, but I didn't find the beast ugly at all. He might have been non-human with an animal-like face, but to me he wass a very handsome looking beast with a lovable expressive face. In contrast, when he finally assumed his human form at the end of the film I found he looked silly and unattractive. There was laughter in the mostly female audience when he was transformed. Did they think the same as me?

This is the must-see film of 2017. It's the year's most successful film so far, and it will be difficult for other films to out-perform it at the box office. It's considered a women's film because of the romantic elements, but that's unfair. Any man who doesn't enjoy it must have a heart of stone.