Belle: Woefully Ineffective

When writing fiction, there are times that a writer will encounter a tangent in a story that is more interesting than the original. When this happens, the writer will find themselves at a crossroads; do they continue the original story, or do they rework the script to follow down the new path that they have found. On the occasions that a writer does not pick one of these options and decides to just do both, the resulting story is a meandering journey to nowhere that is a disservice to both plotlines. That middle ground is the road that Belle finds itself wandering down.

Belle has an interesting premise; it is the story of a teenage girl who joins a virtual world after the death of her mother and finds acceptance there as a virtual pop star. As a work of science fiction it could explore the effect that social media has on teenagers, the effects of quickly obtained and fleeting fame, what is the barrier before the real world and the virtual world, what happens when someone at that formative age puts themselves through the most extreme version of Photoshop, and even what is the ethics of using AI and technology for surveillance, even if it prevents crimes from being committed. Unfortunately, none of these are actively explored and are just touched on before committing (or the closest thing to committing this movie does) to partially retelling Beauty and the Beast.

Ordinarily, complaining about the paths not taken in a plot does not actually help with criticism of the movie. It’s not fair to armchair quarterback based on the story being different from the construct that a viewer can make in their head because a film should be criticized based on what is presented, not what could have been. The problem sets in when a movie goes out of its way to show the viewers what could have been by introducing plot lines and then dropping them almost immediately.

The other problem is, the third act is predicated on a decision by the protagonist (Suzu) to give up her online alter-ego (Belle) to resolve the conflict. At best her attitude towards her fame can be described as indifferent up until that point so the decision lacks the emotional weight. The dialogue attempts to convince the viewer that this is a bigger deal than it is, but it does not work. On top of this, people in the virtual world question why she hasn’t vanished after being “Unveiled” but the consequences of “Unveiling” and who can do the “Unveiling” is never established up until this point, making the event lack emotional resonance.

Despite all the problems, the movie is beautiful to look at when they are in the virtual world and making full use of both 3D environments and 2.5D animation. It contrasts beautifully with the regular 2D of the real world, which creates the effect that it is better to be in the virtual world than the real world. Unfortunately, like a lot of the interesting paths this movie could take, this is another breezed past idea that is not deeply used.

Rating: 7/10