Yawning exercise

One of the most famous fairytales ‘Beauty and the Beast’ (French version) comes to us but are we in a mood for such fare? Assuming we are, it is centred on a rich merchant (Andre Dussollier) and his three daughters.

The youngest Belle (Lea Seydoux) is the apple of her dad’s eye and is simple and pure, unlike her two elder sisters Astrid (Myriam Charleins) and Clotilde (Sara Giraudeau) who are wicked/selfish and treat Belle like a servant.

One not-so-fine day the merchant’s ships are caught in a tempest and sink, making him a pauper. So the merchant finds himself lost in a forest owned by Bette or the Beast (Vincent Cassel) pursued by a Perducas (Eduardo Noreiga) for debts incurred by his sons.

This then is the setting of our story and director Christophe Gans does well to portray lush greenery and quaint characters, especially the two conniving elder sisters.

The good versus evil theme isn’t too blatant but director Gans dwells crawlingly on the narrative, all of 112 minutes. Even kids will be yawning.