The Beautician and the Beast

Director: Ken Kwapis Ken Kwapis

Overview

A series of merry mix-ups result when the beastly dictator of the formerly communist Slovetzia hires New York beautician Joy Adams to educate his children. Believing she was hired to beautify the dictator and his family, Joy soon causes colorful chaos in the dictator's gloomy palace.

Product Details

Release Date:	10/22/2019
UPC:	0032429277749
Original Release:	1997
Rating:	PG
Source:	ALLIED VAUGHN
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	1:47:00
Sales rank:	30,247

Special Features

Closed Caption; Commentary by Fran Drescher

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Fran Drescher	Joy Miller
Timothy Dalton	Boris Pochenko
Ian McNeice	Grushinsky
Patrick Malahide	Kleist
Lisa Jakub	Katrina
Michael Lerner	Jerry Miller
Adam LaVorgna	Karl
Phyllis Newman	Judy Miller
Heather DeLoach	Masha
Kyle Wilkerson	Yuri,Yuri
Timothy Dowling	Alek
Michael Immel	Stage Manager
Tonya Watts	Model
Tamara Mello	Consuela
Celeste Russi	Lupe
Daniel R. Escobar	Hector
Bill Brown	Fireman
Jorge Noa	Photographer
Carmela Rappazzo	Student
Clyde Wrenn	Student
Earl Carroll	Factory Worker
Vincent Schiavelli	Jailer
Marianne Muellerleile	Chef
R. Sparkle Stillman	Cousin Doris
Ed Cambridge	Elderly Man
Todd Graff	Denny
Gene Chronopoulos	Servant
David Shackelford	Kitchen Worker
Michael Horton	Fairy-tale Prince
J.J. Chaback	Neighbor at Party
Zdenek Vencl	Czech Guard
Vaclav Legner	Czech Guard
Leon Silver	Vaclav
Stephen Marcus	Ivan
Marshal Silverman	Tailor
Dana Bednarova	Svetlana

Technical Credits

Todd Graff

Ken Kwapis	Director
Todd Graff	Screenwriter,Producer
Howard W. 'Hawk' Koch Jr.	Producer
Roger Birnbaum	Executive Producer
Fran Drescher	Executive Producer
Peter Marc Jacobson	Executive Producer
Dan Cangemi	Special Effects
Dick Hancock	Stunts
Janet Hirshenson	Casting
Jane Jenkins	Casting

Editorial Reviews

Beautician and the Beast is the prototypical example of a style of romantic farce that thrived in the 1990s, even using two particularly well-worn scenarios: "opposites attract" and "outsider cons his/her way into real/metaphorical royalty." But even though the setup is unremarkably ordinary, it's executed with a certain competence, occasionally rising to the level of contagious. Bringing her Nanny shtick to the big screen, but minimizing the nasally laughter to become a more credible romantic lead, Fran Drescher is actually pretty charming, almost to the point you'd understand why a stolid Eastern European dictator would melt in her presence. Timothy Dalton, in a rare post-Bond big screen performance, is pretty good as that dictator, though his Russian accent isn't a significant improvement from that attempted by a hundred other actors. What keeps the movie from being a full-on guilty pleasure is the couple noticeable ways it's not particularly competent -- or, at the very least, deviates from the prototypical structure viewers are programmed to expect. For one, the fact that Drescher's makeup artist is mistaken for a legitimate teacher gets very little comic mileage. It never becomes either an actual source of tension in the script, or something she tries very hard to cover up. Another thing that doesn't sit so well is the representation of the fictitious nation of Slovetzia. It's small enough that the entire country seems to consist of one downtown area, and everyone seems to know everyone else, yet it's big enough to get a front-page news story in USA Today. Then again, another distinguishing characteristic about movies like Beautician and the Beast is that details like these aren't supposed to matter. For the most part, they don't. The movie also doesn't matter much, but it's not a total waste of time, either.