La bella y la bestia

I was hoping this would be a nice little rom com to pass an hour or so.. based on Jane Austen with a decent cast it should have been good... unfortunately not.. as with so many films currently, most of the focus seems to have been on WOKE box ticking rather than the actual storyline, characters or dialogue.

Nominally based on a Jane Austin novel from well over a century ago yet much of the dialog was Gen Z slang, or #Hashtag or something. Bleeper instead of Twitter (before X). But it wasn't all that slang. Grayson claimed not to understand any of it and spoke in his own style. Wren and Owen often quoted Austen. All to say, the dialogue kept me alert. The lifestyles of the characters followed much the same lines as their dialogue generally leaning toward the social media dominated society.

This isn't the cliche laden rom/com, but it is supposed to be a rom/com. That too kept me alert because couples seemed to be hooking up right and left and then sometimes unhooking, but seemingly not the obvious lead couple of Own and Wren. I didn't think Shane McRae had chemistry with Alicia Witt.

I've long been a fan of Witt, but she hasn't been as active acting since this movie as she was before it. She has been concentrating on her music. Her character here was not unusual for her, but I think her performance was not her best and she got lost a little in the crowded field here despite being the headliner.

There's very little that's good about this movie, but the worst are the protagonists. No chemistry, no charm, nothing. The actress playing the lead honestly made me cringe. Even teenagers in school plays can act better. She seemed plastic, childish, clumsy (that way of dancing and walking) and just generally bad. Not a sign of the strong lead that Jane Austen wrote. Don't lose two hours of your time watching.

Honestly, I don't usually write reviews but this deserved one. Wow! What was that?! Listen, I am a sucker for Rom Coms and Jane Austen adaptations but this was something else. I don't even know what was worse from everyone talking in hashtags to the exaggerated British accent to the atrocious dancing in the club. Also there was zero chemistry between the two leads. Yeah this should have never seen the light of day.

Boring, bad acting, pointless dialogues. 35 minutes in and it couldn't make me crack a smile, let alone crack up with laughter. Just don't waste your time with it. This is not a comedy, it's the tragedy of acting.