Customer Reviews

Beautiful

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Beautiful, adj. 1. Having beauty; delighting the senses and mind. 5. The ideal of beauty.

So says Webster, and given that, Mona Hibbard of Naperville, Illinois does not embody that quality on the inside. Mona has had a drive to be beautiful and from her pre-teen years, has worked hard, getting her teeth straightened, going to a grace school, and befriending Ruby, who has learned to sew from her grandmother. From watching beauty pageants on TV, she herself enters a beauty pageant and wins for best costume. The trouble is, her parents are far from supportive, and she herself shuts them out of her life. Her mother keeps saying she's getting aggravated from her behaviour, and even when Mona gets a consolation medal reading "participant," she merely says that she didn't get anything. On the other hand, the egocentric Mona's no angel either. She has a room with posters full of beauty pageant memorabilia, and a sign on the door reading "knock first" When her mother asks her if she wants some pizza, Mona refuses to answer because her mother didn't knock first.

Years later, Ruby and Mona are firm friends. Ruby and her grandmother still help make costumes for Mona, who still has the same dream, and will do anything to get it. In one scene smacking of black humour and slapstick, she sabotages a rival's equipment when that girl steals Mona's routine and is lucky enough to go first. This has grave ramifications later on, which I won't reveal. However, when Mona discovers she's pregnant, it's bad news, because women who are mothers or legal guardians are disqualified from entering the Miss American Miss competition. But she's so desperate to prove herself beautiful, she has Ruby pose as the mother of her child, a girl named Vanessa, while she becomes her own child's aunt. This helps her win Miss Illinois, which makes her a contestant for Miss America Miss pageant. In the meantime, there are the expected public appearances to promote her.

However, fate plays a cruel trick on Ruby, leaving Vanessa in Mona's care, something neither is chuffed about. Mona sees her own daughter as A) an inconvenience, and B) someone to take photos of her to mold her image as a caring, heroic, role model. But what makes a real role model? Mona's "campaign slogan" is "empowering America's youth for a brighter America." A pity she doesn't embody that ideal toward her own soccer-loving seven year old daughter.

In Mallrats Joey Lauren Adams played the smarter advice-giving girlfriend to Claire Forlani. As Ruby, Adams is the hard-working, grounded, patient friend who works hard to help Mona reach her goal even to the extent of being the mother to Vanessa, and treating her like a real mother would, making this her best role since Chasing Amy. Hallie Kate Eisenberg (Vanessa) is quite the delight here as the very insightful girl who ends up being more mature and abler than her birth mother. Indeed, when she asks Mona how come she looks so much like her, it's more than just physical appearance, but more on personality. One only has to look at the way Mona's own mother treated her to see how Mona treats Vanessa, with lack of sympathy, support, and as somewhat of an inconvenience. Her other question to Mona, "where do I belong?" is something that Mona herself is struggling with, to belong somewhere. Adams and Eisenberg really make this movie worth it.

Actress Sally Fields' feature film directorial debut was much panned by critics, and perhaps it's Minnie Driver's character, who isn't that likeable until the final twenty minutes or so of the movie. All the same, one is aggravated by her egotistical self-centered behaviour, while at the same time wanting her to not only grow up, as Ruby tells her in a moment of exasperation, but to be, in the words of Webster, to become beautiful.

When this movie was first released in theaters, I honestly did not have much of an intrest for viewing it. But recently I did end up watching "Beautiful", and I really enjoyed it. I think this movie is the type where even though it may not be excellent, it's still worth the time to watch. "Beautiful" is a movie about a young girl who always dreamed of winning the title of "Miss America Miss". For most of her life, she tried to create her own beauty and win beauty contest. As a young girl, she meets Joey Lauren Adams' character who designs Minnie's character's dresses. They become best friends, and keep on competing in beauty contest as Minnie's character grows older. I would add more to the story, but I don't want to give everything away. The ending really brings the movie together, and even though some scenes may seem cheesy, it still turns out to be a nice movie. "Beautiful" is one of those sweet, funny, and cute movies girls gotta watch with their girl friends. It will make you laugh and cry lol.. and just have an enjoyable time for about an hour and a half.

I saw this movie with my friend, and it was a choice between this and a football movie. We saw this, and we left the theater almost crying because of how sweet the end was, both agreeing that Minnie Driver's charecter had been evil until the very end. Anybody who is a fan of chick-flicks, or movies with sweet endings has to see this!

My wife (and our youngest) and I have enjoyed watching this cute film several times,(even though my wife was a pageant contestant all through her teens) this is a great film about self esteem, friendship, vanity, growing up and responsibility.

Minnie Driver is great as usual, and here we first learn of her considerable vocal talents (by the way her CD " Everything in My Pocket"is a great singer song-writer album) and then there is the adorable "Pepsi Girl" Hailey Kate Eisenberg, who is spot on as the world wise (but unknowing) daughter.

This isn't a great movie, but it is a pretty good one. If you are looking for a nice movie about finding your place in the world, you should enjoy "Beautiful".

This is one of THE best movies ever. Great story line, and a happy ending.

I thought this movie was adorable! I loved the way it started out with Minnie Driver's character as a child- the endless amount of energy (and make-up and money!) the little girl put into her pageant efforts was hilarious!

The "Miss America Miss" pageant contestants were classic- it makes you realize just how ridiculous those things are!

Yes, it was cheesy and overly dramatic, definitely unrealistic, but it was clearly intended to be this way. This satire was also very sweet with the very young Hallie Kate stealing the show!

This movie is funny, charming, and at times just plain cheesey - the perfect movie for a girls' night out! I think the funniest part of the movie was when little Mona couldn't eat an orange because she was on a diet.. A good movie overall, worth buying as long as it's a good price!!

Title: Beautiful
Rating: PG13

Imagine you worked all your life for something, such as a career. But when you get there you think you've failed but you really haven't . well that is what this story is about. A young women named Mona that worked all her life toward being Miss American Miss, but she had a child and she thought her career was over.
I think this story has a good plot. Because it deals with a lot of courage and inspires others not to give up on their dreams. there are three main characters in this story. Which are ,Mona which is the main character, Vanessa, Mona's little girl, and Mona's best friend, Ruby.
This story is mostly about a young women who didn't give up on her dream. Even though they looked helpless. And she depended on her best friend to help her accomplish her dream. Mona's parents were not supportive of anything Mona did. so Ruby came into the picture sort of like a mercy angle. Ruby helped Mona almost the whole way through. But it came to the point where Mona had to do it on her own. Will Mona win the pageant alone? The directors chose on the backgrounds and the outfits was excellent! Anyway I think this movie is the best movie ever made! And I highly recommend it to anyone who has a dream. And I think only middle school and up should be aloud to watch this film. Because of the rating which isPG.13.Mostly because of language.
I will end My review with a question for you to think about. If you where just about to catch your dream but it would hurt someone to make it happen, what would you do?

"Beautiful" is definitely in my top 10 list of all time chick flicks. Why, you ask? A few reasons. 1. The movie has wonderful character development. We closely follow Mona (Minnie Driver) from being a struggling, yet insecure young girl up to where she is a struggling and even more insecure woman. Vanessa (Hallie Kate Eisenberg) has grown into a confident and emotionally secure young girl having had all of the loving and attention which Mona never had from her (Mona's) own mother. And Ruby (Joey Lauren Adams) ends up being the real "heroine" in the movie, raising Vanessa into a wonderful little girl and then, in effect being the understanding and caring "mother" to Mona to help Mona start to grow and mature emotionally. 2. The movie is well paced and has many tender moments, the most "tear-jerker" moment being the final hotel scene between Mona and Vanessa.
This movie should especially appeal to single parents (such as myself) who, for one reason or another had never had the opportunity to truly bond with their kids when they were young. My congratulations to Sally Field on an excellent movie!!

Wonderful cast and excellent directo.....I am a fan of all! But, for directoral debut, come on Sally, you could have done a lot better. Sally is one of the best in show biz, wealth of experience.....such a disappointing start in the director world. Starts out as a cute, feel good story....then, goes down hill. Pathetic story twist and a stretch at making a very well intended message. Avoid this movie!