Beastly

Time Out New York Project: Issue #803, March 10-16, 2011

★☆☆☆☆

Dir. Daniel Barnz. 2011. PG-13. 86mins. Alex Pettyfer, Vanessa Hudgens, Mary-Kate Olsen.

Another classic fairy tale gets a youth-market redo: This time it’s Beauty and the Beast, transposed to a New York high school. Blandly handsome Alex Pettyfer plays blandly handsome Kyle, who is transformed by the resident goth witch (Olsen) into a scarred, moping monstrosity. He then has one year to find love before his condition becomes permanent. Dull and perfunctory, the film’s saving grace is MVP Neil Patrick Harris as Kyle’s blind tutor, who has a witty aside for every woodenly expressed sentiment. You go, Doog!—Keith Uhlich

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