Beauty (2011)

Wow! Such a good movie.

Thanks for the memories!

Good concept, poorly executed.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

This film is without a doubt the most shocking film I have ever seen. It's difficult to say just how the writer/director came about doing this film but a couple of things come to mind. I could not help think of the way Hitchcock would prepare the viewer for a shocking scene by almost lulling the viewer to sleep so that when the big scene takes place you practically jump from your seat and go running for the nearest exit. I'm thinking of Psycho, of course. Here, a virtually identical event takes place and there was no exit for me to run to so I had to stay in my chair and sit out perhaps the most horrific scene I have ever witnessed in a movie or in real life. It is shockingly presented and you sit there frozen thinking to yourself this can't be happening. Everything that happens before the big scene and everything that happens after are completely out of context with the big scene itself and the writer/director has done this precisely the way Hitchcock did it in Psycho. There is an element of abstraction that really hits you hard and you just cannot stop thinking about what you have just seen. In fact, the more I think about this film the more I realize how torn and twisted men are when it comes to lust and the flesh and that the biggest struggle men have is overcoming their sexual desires especially when they are twisted and sick as in this fellow's case. It really is impossible for women to fully grasp just how horrific it is for men in many cases to overcome the flesh and to behave in a humane and decent way. Men are tortured there is no question about it and the man in this film is a perfect example of how wrong a man can go even though on the surface he lives a good life.

About 90 minutes into this "film" the main character, Francois (played by Deon Lotz) lures his "nephew", Christian (played by Charlie Keegan), to his hotel room under the pretense that he is too inebriated to get there on his own. Out of nowhere the uncle lunges onto his nephew like a lion taking down an antelope. Then Francois, sitting on his nephew's chest, pinning his arms down with his knees, proceeds to pound his face like a sledge hammer with his fist, hard enough to fracture his jaw, break his nose, and cause some level of brain concussion. "Uncle" Francois then undoes his pants and forces his nephews face into his own crotch and rapes him orally. Blood is everywhere. The nephew, by then, sufficiently injured and in full blown medical shock, is then turned over onto his stomach, pants are pulled down, and the uncle proceeds to rape him anally while strangling him. Just in case this isn't horrifying enough for you, the camera angle is then changed to an overhead shot so that you can see the victims backside as he's being brutalized. His injuries from this attack, both exterior and interior, physical and mental, leave him comatose and unable to move even after he is no longer being physically restrained. This film is the "rape" equivalence of a snuff film. Its only real purpose is to titillate at the basest, and most disgusting, reptilian level. The makers of this crap would have you believe that what happened in that hotel room was the result of repressed homosexuality. Again, just to reiterate, he brutally beat and brutally raped his "nephew". Repressed homosexuality may lead to alcoholism, drug addiction, a secret life of clandestine sex, but it does not lead to sadistic sexual sadism and rape. Either make a film about a repressed homosexual, or make one about a rapist. But do not conflate the two. One is a tortured soul. The other tortures victims. It is unbelievable to read the "10's" here that congratulate this filmmaker on his "penetrating look into the torment of sexual repression". What this actually is, is a glimpse into the soulless evil of sadistic sexual psychopath. Think, Boston Strangler, John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy. Francois, in this film, is not Dennis Quaid in "Far From Heaven". He is a brutal criminal. And about half an hour before the brutal rape you'll discover that he's a racist and a homophobe as well when he travels to the South African plains to an isolated ranch house where he stands around drinking with other racist/homophobes until they get drunk enough to dull their mutual disgust for one another enough so that they can have gross-out sex with each other while watching porn. Those two wonderful scenes take up about five minutes of screen time. The other hour and thirty- two minutes is composed of Francois thinking, thinking, thinking. Looking, thinking, looking. Thinking, looking, thinking. Staring, looking, thinking, looking, staring. The only mercy, which you are as of yet unaware, is that there is no raping going on. There is very little dialog. And what there is, is banal. Then the gross-out sex in the ranch house with a bunch of sweaty fat old men. Then the brutal, and truly horrifying, rape; and that's about it. This is a sick, sick, movie. Not because it shows something horrible that is difficult to watch, or shouldn't be explored, but because it attempts to explain a crime, or gain sympathy for a criminal, by portraying that criminal as a victim of a repressive society, and his crime as the byproduct of that repression. THAT, is criminal. Yes, we should repress assault, battery, and rape, as much as is humanly possible. Those are crimes. Prosecute, and then off to prison you go for a possible twenty-five years to life. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200.00. And do not make a stupid movie surrounding the crime.Oh, yeah. The ending (as if this couldn't get any worse). Francois is out alone at a restaurant for lunch and sees a happy gay couple across the dining room sharing romantic glances with one another. He looks wistfully (the looking, staring, thinking - again) as if to imply, "if only I could be "out" I wouldn't have to brutally beat and rape my nephew." Hey idiot boy, writer/director Robert Hermanus, sexual battery, assault, and rape, are not the by products of sexual repression. That you are confused about this is - interesting. I don't know what is more disturbing, this film, or that there are some out there who think that this garbage is an insight into repression. This film panders to a gay audience (I am one), in a truly egregious, creepy, and insulting, way. No thanks.It is of no importance whatsoever that Deon Lotz gives a good performance of - someone... It's in the wrong film.

I have been looking for a different gay movie where the main character doesn't kill himself or have an over sexual mother who kills herself etc... Or the depressing coming of a age gay movies that have been done a zillion times with all the disappointments and unrequited love to straights endless humiliations the straight girl who loves him who he has to tell the truth to on and on... This movie is it!I have been to South Africa, Bloemfontein no less, and the scene where the Boer farmers engage in a little secret homosexual love party totally threw me. A middle aged married man becomes infatuated with a pretty (Title) younger man eventually culminating in a hotel room where he beats him up to have his way instead of the stereotype where the reverse happens. GREAT.This movie is unique and different...until the very end I was not sure what would happen as gay movies always have to end with some bad ending for the gay protagonist--not this one.It reminded me a little of a Rod Steiger movie The Sargeant (1968) where Steiger falls in love with a junior army soldier--except Steiger has to commit suicide after coming on to the young recruit.Times have changed for the better--For the reviewer baffled by the swimming pool with debris and clothes in it...water is symbolic through out the movie...the rain after the gay bar pure water from the sky..the poetry reading...it symbolizes the id/sexual life of the hero---yucky icky water on the home front lots of hidden things lurking there.HIGHLY RECOMMEND

Oliver Hermanus wonderfully crafted "Beauty" was South Africa's submission to the Academy Awards as well as 2011 Un Certain Regard Cannes Film Festival Nominee and a Cannes award winner. This is a tale of repressed turmoil that slowly creep ups to the viewer. A very capable Deon Lotz plays François in an excellent performance filled with subtle anger, rage, jealousy and obsession. These feeling progressively take their toll on the unsuspecting Christian, brilliantly portrayed by Charlie Keegan with a devastating innocence and magnetic charm that will keep audiences disturbed long after experiencing this film. Family man Francois van Heerden is a haven of many secrets. Secrets that deteriorate as well as rot the insides. In his endurance of life's test and family matters, François is able to keep an expected straight face in his daily dealings as he slowly asphyxiates for attention from his daughter's mate Christian. Christian, on the other hand, not only regards Francois as an elderly figure worthy of respect due to friendship ties with his father but refers to him as "uncle", an adoptive role soon to be tested by an ever raging need to relate in highly improbable ways unbeknown to an oblivious Christian . However, we get the sense that Christian honestly looked up to Francois as an additional father figure source. The platonic dealings slowly eats away at Francois as he repeatedly insists Christian refer to him by his name in order to detract from the connecting familiar upbringing which seems to awkwardly remind Francois to hold back on his planned intentions. Effective scheming leads to the an extremely troubling conclusion based on a number of deliberate choices and sequential actions meant to pander to the vile objectives to be executed. Upon the enforcement of his plans, François realizes the results are now irreversible. The damage is done and permanent. The post mutilating events leads to reparations that will ultimately render Francois unrepentant and numb to an uneven arrangement. The brilliance of this story falls within the mix bag of emotions this film emits. The film is beautifully haunting as it unfolds, yet extremely ugly. "Beauty" is a cinematic gem worthy of attention because it will illicit a variety of strong and deep long lasting reactions. It will encourage dialogue with other viewers immediately after watching regarding its many unanswered questions of what could have been.