Beautiful is such a sappy, pandering, overly sincere, paint-by-numbers feel-good movie it's almost a surprise Robin Williams doesn't play its central character, an absurdly determined wannabe beauty queen (sure he's hairy and male--but that's never stopped him before). Instead it's Minnie Driver who swallows her pride for the role of a repellently shallow and insecure outcast from a broken white-trash home, who takes 15 years to learn a trite Sunday school lesson about how there are more important things in life than being pretty (like her secret daughter, played by Pepsi shill Hallie Kate Eisenberg). Awash in bogus sentimentality, pained attempts at humor and several preposterous plot devices, Beautiful is the directorial debut of talented but notoriously mawkish actress Sally Field, and she robustly wrings it for every last drop of sap. Not recommended. (R. Blackwelder)
Beautiful
Columbia TriStar, 112 min., PG-13, VHS: $106.99, DVD: $24.95, Feb. 20 Vol. 16, Issue 1
Beautiful
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As of March 2022, Video Librarian has changed from a four-star rating system to a five-star one. This change allows our reviewers to have a wider range of critical viewpoints, as well as to synchronize with Google’s rating structure. This change affects all reviews from March 2022 onwards. All reviews from before this period will still retain their original rating. Future film submissions will be considered our new 1-5 star criteria.
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