Beautiful (2009)

..... told in an urban legend style!There's the key phrase ... urban legend ... which you hear more than once throughout this movie! This story is just an urban legend. That weird neighborhood with those big odd houses and equally odd residents. How could a policeman own that huge house that Danny lived in? And the neighborhood seemed totally uninvolved with their fellow neighbors. Suzy outside showing herself off and then again inside? There's a couple having sex and nobody closes the curtains on the ground floor of their houses? Then number 46, the house at the end of the road ... the mystery house with the woman forever standing at the window. None of these characters comes across as real. There's just enough reality to them to be believed - just like an urban legend.Then there is Danny, the withdrawn fourteen year old obsessed with taking photos and with Suzy next door. For a loner young boy he has nerves of steel and no fear of taking the challenges Suzy gives him to earn her attention. Just boil this story down to the opening stories of the missing girls - Danny - Suzy - house 46 - the strange woman inside - the detective magazines - and Max; you have yourself a full blown urban legend.This is an OK movie with just enough edge to it to keep your interest up and then the powerhouse ending to bring it all into focus! None of it ever really happened.I think the movie is called 'Beautiful' because director Flaherty was hung up on Sebastian's face - all those closeups of that most innocent wide eyed actor with that halo of black hair!

I was quite drawn in by the title and brief description of the movie. I watched this at home on the TV one bored night - uh, morning.With that said, I want it to be known that this movie was actually pretty captivating. The relationship between the "weird" main character(Danny) and the "alluring" girl next door(Suzy) was enough to find something odd about the way manipulation was used to find out more information about the mysterious disappearances.The climax of the film however, was a little weird. I was hoping for some dramatic reunion between the woman in the house (Jennifer) and Danny. *Call me a sucker for a happy ending* I really found a likeness towards the stepmother, but for Danny's sake, I wished the whereabouts of his real mom would've been better explained...Not just that she's dead so the woman in the house can't be her :/On one hand, I was exciting about the shrieking phone call where Danny dares to go into the villainous house with his dad's firearm to save the girl of his dreams, but at the end... well, I was left feeling sorry for the couple who just wanted to be left alone.Ugh, and don't get me started on Suzy. That chick's forehead alone could crush walnuts. (I'm sorry. I just had to add a little rant about how she was seen as being attractive.)I found the ending to be a little too calm. Most people found it confusing. I just assumed that Suzy's mom sitting in the window was the only adding to the film's creepy atmosphere. It made me think that perhaps Jennifer was trying to protect the neighborhood, the same way Suzy's mom said she would. In the film's defense, Jennifer did keep telling Danny that it wasn't safe coming to her house (which could have easily been seen as a hint towards her motherly past-life she doesn't want speak of)The only question I had in my mind was: How did the mom die? Why was she ripped out of all of her pictures? And most importantly, how did Jennifer get her charm bracelet? (seems a bit more than a coincidence)

SPOILER ALERT! The trouble with the earlier reviews of this film is that the film requires you to think a bit harder about what's going on than the previous reviewers. True enough, the film is almost cartoonish towards the end, utterly lacking in credibility. But you have to ask yourself whether that's a mistake, or part of the film-maker's overall plan. Well, let's see. The movie begins and ends with a narration by Suzy's mother, talking about the dark and sinister things that are going on in the neighbourhood, things that she understands all too well, even though others don't. Moreover, during the film it becomes clear that she projects what she imagines onto what she sees. Think of the scene where she comes into the room when Suzy is dancing and accuses her of revealing herself to the world. So here is my conjecture. The entire film is the mother's fantasy. I think that this explains well why the cartoonish scenes towards the end, which come quick and fast, are the way they are. You're meant to be thinking, 'Oh, come on! This is ridiculous!', but then, when you see that final scene, you're supposed to think 'Oh! Now I get it. The mother is a nutjob and we've been seeing the whole world through her eyes.'

"Beautiful" is one of those movies that can be described with style over substance. From the DVD Cover (which represents the opening scene of the movie) on you know the director is into stylish and kind of odd shots. At first I really had big hopes for this but problem with this kind of mysterious movies is that as soon as the mystery clears up and doesn't lead anywhere you are left with nothing. Exactly thats what I was left with after watching "Beautiful". The odd shots which seem quirky and fresh at first soon begin to annoy you because they just don't mean anything. You can basically see the final "twist" coming a mile away considering we are following a boy who is rather the strange outcast and his mother regularly mentioning that he is not living "in the real world". From here you get a mysterious detective story revolving around some abducted girls and a strange house with a lady constantly watching through the curtains. There are too many comparisons with cult movies like Donnie Darko (and scenes like the night views into the suburban windows and the score sure are close to it) or American Beauty which had an influence on the opening scene and the odd suburban setting. Anyway just because a movie steals visual gimmicks and obvious sound design from movies like these I don't see many similarities because the story has no grip and the storytelling is uneven and getting very stretched in the middle of the movie. The constant use of strange shots inter-cut with the plot gets a little annoying and could have been used a little more subtle. Anyway... biggest let-down like in many movies is the finale leaving too many loose ends especially about the boy and his family. Where the opening scene with the off-screen narration works fine the same element seems pretty stupid in the end. I guess its easy to make a "mysterious" movie but when the plot clears even if things are left unexplained to make the viewer think for himself... thats where a movie shows its substance. "Beautiful" left me with nothing, not caring about the characters and the unexplained parts of the story. So to compare the movie with movies like the fore-mentioned which left the viewer with many thoughts in his head is far off. Visually interesting but story-wise a disaster that has far too many lengthy moments.