THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 9, 1997 TAG: 9702080095
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E11 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie Review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: 52 lines
MAYBE IT'S just that I've never watched ``The Nanny'' on TV, but I find Fran Drescher's version of an aggressive, New York-style vulgarian in ``The Beautician and the Beast'' sporadically hilarious.
Those who have spent more time listening to that braying pitch of hers may be justified in saying that it has all the charm of fingernails scratching over a blackboard or worn-out brakes approaching a traffic light.
No matter. It is clear that Joy Miller, the character she portrays, is not meant to be Audrey Hepburn. Here, in one package, you have the irresistible appeal of the Cinderella yarn all over again - the unpretentious streetwise klutz who captures Prince Charming. Although, this time, he isn't so charming.
Joy is a New York beautician who is mistaken for a science teacher and whisked away to the Eastern European principality of Slovetzia to teach the children of Boris Pochenko, the deposed dictator who is now ``president for life.'' Since Communism has been recently ousted, he wants the children to get hip to Western ways. Joy doesn't know a chemical formula from a Latin verb but she does know how to fry hair - and she knows never to use hair spray to put out a fire.
She also knows all kind of other practical things - like how to flirt with Boris, who is said to be ``like Stalin, only minus the charm.''
In no time, she's encouraging his teen-age daughter to continue her affair with the local rebel teen as well as teaching the two younger children to loosen up.
Drescher is a broad comedienne in the style of a Lucille Ball. (In one scene, she actually steals, outright, an old Lucy routine in which she massages the hero). She adds just enough klutzy vulnerability, though, to suggest that Joy also has a heart. As long as she can be both aggressively comedic and vulnerable, the balance is maintained.
Timothy Dalton, the former James Bond (whom we wish still had the job), adds a refreshingly serious portrayal as the ruler. He seems to think that this movie needs some real acting, and he's right. In contrast to Drescher's madness, he's the icy guy who lives to be melted.
In plotting, it's ``The King and I'' and ``The Sound of Music'' but without the music. The movie's excesses are bearable because it is ultimately unpretentious - going directly for the funnybone with no stop at the brain. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
MOVIE REVIEW
``The Beautician and the Beast''
Cast: Fran Drescher, Timothy Dalton
Director: Ken Kwapis
MPAA rating: PG (suggestive at most)
Mal's rating: thee stars