Film: Beauty and the Beast

Disney has invested a fortune in the live-action remake of the animated musical Beauty and the Beast (1991).

The film is executed masterfully, so there is always something that will amaze you. Or you can just sing along to one of the many lively songs by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken. Or engross yourself in the unapologetic baroque romance. Irresistible, however, this show is not. Unless you have not yet outgrown your mid-teens and their attendant obsession with princesses.

The new Belle, a perfectly cast Emma Watson, is a book worm who invents washing machines so that she will have more time to read and gets criticised for teaching a young girl to be literate. Her indomitable independence doesn't help.

But it does keep her sexist, macho admirer at a distance – a funny role for Luke Evans. Ultimately, though, she simply falls for the hideous creature who keeps her locked up in an enchanted castle. This version again prefers to be more saccharine than incisive.

> Beauty and the Beast. US, 2017, dir.: Bill Condon, act.: Emma Watson, Luke Evans, Dan Stevens, 129 min.
> Aventure, Kinepolis, Le Stockel, UGC De Brouckère, UGC Gulden Vlies/Toison d’Or, White Cinema