OK, I read the reviews saying that this movie was not good, but I wanted to see for myself how much of an actress Hallie Eisenberg really is. I can now say that I think she is quite talented and probably has a bright future ahead of her. She had about half of the few genuinely funny lines in the movie (I'm seven--not stupid!"). As for the rest...the first 2/3 wasn't awful. Decent acting that carried the movie along adequately despite the awkward dialogue. But once the action got to the "big pageant" at the end, it just got completely cheesy, and not in a good way. We were laughing in disbelief at the sentimental schlock that the writer/director/producers/whoever seemed to think was heartwarming, and at the plot points that just made no sense whatsoever. My husband, who is by and large very uncritical of movies and can find the good in anything, commented as the credits rolled, "I don't think I've ever seen a movie that crashed that hard at the end." It's an interesting idea for a story, but I agree with Roger Ebert that the script needed a re-write or two before being filmed.
Review of Beautiful
