I always loved Beauty and Beast. The Disney version was one of my favorite movies as a kid, and I will admit, it’s still one of my favorite love stories. There is something strangely romantic about a pretty girl and a creepy werewolf falling in love. It’s cute, and I’m a sucker for those types of things.

That’s why the modern version of this story was so wonderful. Beastly takes a classic love story and puts it into more modern terms, even though it wasn’t the most realistic story — but then again, Beauty and the Beast wasn’t either.

The story focuses on cocky big shot Kyle Kingson (Alex Pettyfer). In addition to his inability to see past the physical appearance of the people around him, he’s gorgeous. Imagine that. His lack of humility lands him in trouble when the school’s resident outcast (Mary-Kate Olsen) places a curse on him making him ugly. She gives him one year to find someone to love him for who he is, not what he looks like, or the tattoos and imperfect skin that he is cursed with will remain permanently

Despite the beauty of Beastly’s main character, he is not the best actor in the business by far. In the beginning of the movie, Kyle is running for student council president claiming that he was the best candidate simply because he was the prettiest, makes the story unbelievable. There are some pretty arrogant people in this world, but I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone this stuck up, which makes his character a little too over-the-top. It might have something to do with the script, but his acting skills were not a saving grace.
Even though the cast of the movie was not what I would call stellar, but a shining high point was definitely the role of Kingson’s blind tutor, played by Neil Patrick Harris. All of his witty, sarcastic remarks provided the perfect amount of comic relief, even if he was not so perfect in his attempt at faking blindness.

Despite the lack of superficiality that makes up the movie, I couldn’t get enough of it. It’s definitely targeted at teenage girls, so all you boys might not enjoy this as thoroughly as us ladies. If you need a good chick flick, Beastly is definitely what you’re looking for.