The Beautician and the Beast time, baby!

So we start off with Enchanted before Enchanted did Enchanted. We then meet Joy Miller (Fran “The Nanny” Drescher). Joy is a beautician and she is a teacher at a beauty school. A fire happens in a classroom one day because cigarette + hair spray= fire. Joy is able to rescue some students and animals and the New York Post runs a story on this. Ira Grushinsky (from Slovetzia) gets the mistaken impression that Joy teaches science; so, he employs her to be a teacher to the kids of Boris Pochenko (Timothy Dalton). Boris is the dictator of Slovetzia. Joy thinks that she is being hired for her hairstyling skills. Ira eventually finds out the truth. 

Joy bonds with Boris’ children (Katrina ( Lisa “Lydia in Mrs. Doubtfire” Jakub), Karl (Adam LaVorgna), Masha (Heather DeLoach) and Yuri  (Kyle and Tyler Wilkerson). Katrina and Alek (Timothy Dowling) are a couple. Joy encourages Karl to be artsy fartsy. Joy and Boris disagree a lot. Joy and Katrina go to a nightclub/a meeting place for the rebellion and Leonid Kleis (Patrick Malahide) takes Alek into custody.

Joy encourages Boris to get to know his people and to shave his mustache. Joy realizes that Slovetzia is lacking in trade unions. Joy also arranges for Katrina and Alek to meet. Joy also convinces Boris to have a function for emissaries so that Boris can lose his negative reputation. Boris ponders staging a prison break for Alek; but, Leonid is not a fan. Joy reveals the truth to Boris; but, he is too happy to care by this point.

Leonid is all “I know that you’ve been helping Katrina and Alek” meet to Joy. Boris decides not to stage a prison break for Alek. Joy tells Boris that she has been assisting Katrina and Alek. Boris reacts to this news the way that the dad of a teenage girl would. We get our third-act rom-com misunderstanding, Joy resigns and she leaves Slovetzia. Leonid goes too power crazy and he starts sentencing people to death. Ira fills Boris in on this and Leonid loses his power. Boris goes to see Joy, we find out that Boris staged a prison break for Alek, we find out that Slovetzia will start having free elections (if your free election lasts longer than four hours, please consult your doctor) and Joy and Boris get together.

Picture a Fran Drescher version of The King and I and you have The Beautician and the Beast. This kind of reminded me of a Hallmark Channel royalty movie. Drescher and Dalton do not have chemistry. You do not buy Joy’s connection with the kids and most of the kids are only known by stereotypes/traits. There are some funny jokes; but, they are rare. Some of the jokes feel like they were written by an eighth grader. Drescher also struggles with non-comedic acting. Some of the political stuff feels uncomfortable. I did enjoy the Disney parody at the beginning.

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