Insufficiently Beastly: A Critical Review of Beast – Top

As far as creature features go, Beast is one of the most emotionally layered and psychology centered in the sub-genre. The family at the center don’t simply contend with a vicious lion, eager to take its revenge on any human beings for the wrongs done by poachers, they also have to grapple with the death of a wife and mother, and the guilt and resentments that follow. Sadly though, all that emotional and psychological heft doesn’t really add anything to a movie that’s meant to serve as a thrill ride.

Like many movies that have come before and undoubtedly many movies that will come after, Beast places an American family (led by English actor Idris Elba) in the middle of a perilous adventure somewhere in the world that isn’t the United States to ensure that US viewers will be able to care about them. The fact that this family, made up of father Nate (Elba) and daughters Nora (Leah Jeffries) and Mer (Iyana Halley), is black and the story takes place in South Africa feels as though it’s meant to counter this criticism, but it doesn’t change the fact that the story easily could have been about black South Africans.

Luckily the movie isn’t about any social issues and the family’s dynamic during early scenes where they are picked up by old family friend Martin (Sharlto Copley) and brought to his home helps the frustration about focusing on an American family dissipate rather quickly. Elba and the girls have fantastic family chemistry and Copley fits right in with them as a beloved friend who the girls call “Uncle Martin.”

But the film isn’t content to simply allow this comfortable family dynamic to become endangered and includes the aforementioned psychological backstory of a dead wife and mother that quickly becomes distracting. We learn that Nate and his wife were separating when she succumbed to cancer and he feels a great guilt about this that’s well fed by Mer’s anger toward him for not being there while her mother died. Halley does alright in these scenes, but Jeffries, who is fantastic in lighter moments and acquits herself well in the few action scenes she’s in, struggles.

The worst thing about this backstory, however, is the inclusion of dream sequences for Nate that involve him wandering a blurry rock formation inhabited by women in traditional garb. But this then serves as a sort of set up for a fake out dream sequence later in the movie, or rather a double fake out, so a triple layered dream sequence; something that’s wholly unnecessary in a movie about a group of people fighting a lion.

Because that’s in theory what Beast is about: a family fighting a lion. The lion has lost its pride to poachers and in retaliation has taken to attacking any humans who wander into its territory. It’s a solid premise, even if it’s only ever so slightly tweaked from the recent Rogue, and the suspense and action scenes deliver.

Director Baltasar Kormákur commits to several long takes throughout the film that make Beast better in a variety of ways. In the cold open, a long take gives a real sense of the geography and the spatial relationships between characters. This only becomes a greater strength later on in more complex human made spaces, so we know exactly where the open doors are or how far Nate is from his children. These takes also allow for the simplicity of following our human characters through an area and showing the lion in the background before they notice or it attacks, creating a palpable tension.

The best scenes in the movie are undoubtedly the long takes that begin with significant conversation between our heroes before anything scary or exciting happens that then shift abruptly into the chaos of an attack. The technique allows the scenes to play out in real time and highlight the comfortable and caring relationships between the characters.

Beast feels as though it could have been great, as the chemistry between the four leads is there and Kormákur directs the hell out of the suspense and action scenes, but the film is dragged down by the unnecessary backstory and the significant time spent processing it. We don’t need a backstory to care about a father protecting his children or a decades-long friendship between two men that may lose one another over the course of the story, especially not when the actors bring those connections to life so well.

Beast has a lot that’s worth celebrating, and any fans of animal attack movies will certainly enjoy the film, but it’s disappointing when something that has so much potential undercuts itself with an entirely unnecessary subplot.

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