Lille frk Norge

Norway is a country whose cinema seems to be somewhat overshadowed by those of Sweden and Denmark. I have only seen a handful of Norwegian movies, but I like especially the Elling trilogy (2001 / 2003 / 2005) about the daily struggles of a socially inhibited man of the same name. Hilde Heier's modern fairytale The Beast of Beauty (literally "Little Miss Norway") is a strange but somewhat watchable addition to my list of Nordic movies that I have seen.

Lotte (Ida Marie Dahr Nygaard) is a young girl living with her widowed father Helge (Bård Tufte Johansen), who works as the Queen's bodyguard. She is enthusiastic about moving in the house of Helge's fiancée, a former beauty queen Kristin (Ingrid Lorentzen), and her daughter Vendela (Amanda Jean Kvakland) who is also a child beauty pageant contestant. However, Kristin and Vendela turn out to be vain and mean to Lotte, hiding some kind of a sinister secret related to obsessive personal grooming and the upcoming children's beauty contest where even the kind Queen herself has been invited.

As a modern variant of the old Cinderella fairytale, the film aims to retain the dark atmosphere of many old folk stories that often seem very grim for family entertainment from a modern point of view. The Beast of Beauty actually turns into a flat-out horror film towards the end; the axe-wielding chase scene (an open homage to Stanley Kubrick's The Shining) and the grotesque transformation finale are certainly not suitable for the youngest kids in the family in spite of the fairytale theme that may attract little ones to the movie earlier on. However, slightly older viewers may see the scary atmosphere as a refreshing change from the all-too-common namby-pamby family film pap and perhaps appreciate the sex jokes better as well.

The film carries a strong message against child abuse and modern obsession with beauty and youthfulness, but I feel it could have focused more on Lotte's emotions. Her loneliness and realistic longing for her deceased mother would have been great material for a melancholic mood piece, but the film is more interested in advancing the first-hand plot than lingering in atmospheric details. As other reviews have pointed out, the supernatural elements and the Queen character do not fit in very comfortably and feel like they have been tacked on just to make the movie more fairytale-like. I think the film could have done fine with just drama, sci-fi and horror, but perhaps the fantasy elements and a happy ending were needed to soften the tone to make it more suitable for young audiences – it is supposed to be a family film after all.

In a way the "horror movie for kids" approach reminded me of a Danish sci-fi tale The Substitute (2007), although the latter is more streamlined in its methods of mixing sci-fi with creepy suspense. I am of two minds about how I like The Beast of Beauty; on the one hand I enjoyed the dark atmosphere, but on the other hand there was not enough character drama and the seams between the genre transitions are a tad too visible. Luckily the kid actors deliver natural performances and the enthusiastic roaming of Lorentzen provides some amusing comedy amidst the dreariness. In the end, I would call the movie watchable regardless of its flaws: the satirical style should keep adults interested enough while preteens can enjoy the mystery bits more.

This could have been one among so many very good Scandinavian family movies. Better than average for Norway (somewhere along Ulvesommer, not too far behind Ikke naken).

And then, only 8 minutes before the closing credits, it suddenly went into completely wrong direction. A normal, modern, realistic story became a fairy tale, without any obvious reason.

Why??? Yes, the movie starts with a mirror, and first scene appears as if seen in a mirror with "Mirror of souls" written on its top. But later we completely forget about it. And the only thing that could remind us on fairy tales is a Queen. However, Norway is a kingdom, and this seems to be a very modern realistic queen, talking to her employees, using cellular phone etc.

The movie continues as a story that could happen to anybody. It has a even a rather strong message, showing exploitation of children for beauty contests (or any other occasion where parents use children to fulfill their own dreams) and chemical (pharmaceutical) industry that irresponsibly uses dangerous substances to develop new products for kids (in this movie some are having narcotic characteristics) just to make profit, so in some parts of the movie it seems to be addressed more to parents than to kids.

And then, after using cars, cellular phones, modern kitchen devices, seeing dark side of industry and media (looking for sensations), that all made us involved in a drama on the edge of crime, suddenly a magic "Mirror of souls" appears - and changes it all into a Grimm brothers style fairy tale.

The worst thing is maybe that it wasn't necessary at all. The whole plot could be developed and brought to end without any magic, supernatural or similar solutions. This is the moment where the movie fails in eyes of adults, but I'm also sure that most of kids won't like this change either. If it is a movie about animals, or cartoon, or classic fairy tale, or adventure with kids - children will accept it, but all these sub-genres are different and have their rules and can't replace one another at the end of the movie. It is so disappointing.

Ingrid Lorentzen seems to be overacting to caricature as a stepmother, but once this movie becomes a fairy tale this characters also becomes an evil Cinderella's stepmother, and justifies her way of acting. However, why wasn't the whole movie made in the same style, and all the actors playing caricatures or at least some typical fairy tale roles? At the end, of course, there was also not a trace of former criticism. Just a typical old style happy-end. And my rating 6/10 is very generous, only because of the first 80 percent of the movie, but the whole construction could be satisfied if given 4.