This 2014 adaptation of the French fairy tale looks spectacular, with vibrant landscapes and lavish 18th-century costumes, but Léa Seydoux, as the fair maiden, and Vincent Cassell, as an arrogant prince in flashback and the beast in a motion-capture performance, are stiff and perfunctory. Their sudden switch from mutual animus to true love—which the 1991 Disney animation negotiated through a credible getting-to-know-each-other montage—is unconvincing, and the movie fails to render the lovers compelling or compatible. Christophe Gans (Silent Hill) directed. In French with subtitles.
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