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Year One
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Beautiful

Generally unfavorable reviews
Based on 28 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 8 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama
Written by: Jon Bernstein
Directed by: Sally Field
Release Date:
Theatrical: September 29, 2000
DVD: February 20, 2001
Running Time: 112 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for language and thematic elements
Starring Minnie Driver, Joey Lauren Adams, Hallie Kate Eisenberg, Kathleen Turner, Leslie Stefanson, Bridgette Wilson, Kathleen Robertson, and Michael McKean
On her way to becoming Miss America, a poor girl (Driver) faces her life's goal and discovers what is really important.
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak
In the end, dark comedy drives the film, but it's overwhelmed by a desire to be liked, really liked.
Read Full Review >TNT RoughCut Andy Klein
Generally engaging.
Philadelphia Inquirer Desmond Ryan
To do this kind of satire successfully, you need the kind of merciless and unrelenting wit of films such as Gus Van Sant's "To Die For" or John Huston's "Prizzi's Honor."
Time Richard Schickel
You don't quite believe that a smart woman would spend so much time on such a dumb mission.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
Unfortunately, whenever Beautiful threatens to work as parody, it veers uncomfortably into pop psychology.
Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
This film's wise and compassionate view is that, for many young women of limited opportunities, winning a beauty contest represents their best hope.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Examiner G. Allen Johnson
SORRY, SALLY. I didn't like it. I really didn't like it.
USA Today Mike Clark
Burdened with so many poky scenes that it approaches the level of the distributor's "Drowning Mona" and "Whipped," both candidates for the year's worst.
New York Post Lou Lumenick
Rarely does a movie go so thoroughly wrong in so many ways.
Boston Globe Jay Carr
The tame, confused script eventually sinks the film, although Field shows skill directing actors.
Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
Not one female character escapes mockery or patronizing.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Ted Shen
Sally Field's direction is pedestrian, though she does manage to get winning performances out of Driver and Eisenberg.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Peter Stack
(Driver) is stuck in a mess of a movie that suffers from awkward writing, a plot with major disconnects in plausibility, an annoyingly screechy kid character and cheesy production values.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
It's a movie with so many inconsistencies, improbabilities, unanswered questions and unfinished characters that we have to suspend not only disbelief but also intelligence.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Sara Wildberger
The trouble starts with the script, and it doesn't end there.
Chicago Tribune Marc Caro
Spends its first three-quarters confronting us with one of the most dislikable characters in recent memory.
New York Daily News Jack Mathews
About the only plausible element in the entire movie is bratty Vanessa's loathing of "Aunt" Mona, whom she sees as a vacuous over-reacher.
Read Full Review >Mr. Showbiz Cody Clark
Beautiful it ain't, but it is kind of cute.
LA Weekly Ella Taylor
Made with the slick, shorthand complacency of a TV movie, Beautiful is so overstuffed with contrivance, you can hardly breathe.
Read Full Review >Variety Emanuel Levy
There's no particular reason to see this disappointingly trivial picture on the bigscreen.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman
A tone-deaf dramedy whose need to please is a pain in the neck.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
Teeters from a noisy sitcom (only one step removed from "The Beverly Hillbillies") to brickbat satire until it collapses in a pool of redemptive mush.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Stephen Hunter
It manages to find an almost pitch-perfect accumulation of ill-matched tones, sheer grotesquerie, near-heroic absurdity and self-canceling folly.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Jessica Winter
Surpassing Dan Aykroyd's "Nothing but Trouble" as the most astoundingly atrocious walrus-flop of a directorial debut by a languishing actor ever contrived, Sally Field's Beautiful.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 5.2 (out of 10) based on 8 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Bob H. gave it a1:
Minnie Driver as a Miss America contestant? Be serious...maybe as a dog show contestant.
Glynn H gave it a10:
I thought this was a great movie. I found it to be very touching as well as very funny. It had me in tears from laughter and from the emotion. Minnie Driver won me over with this movie. I rewatch it at least once a month and my love for it never waivers. It is, if you will forgive me, a "Beautiful" movie.
Marcelo C. gave it a10:
I really liked this movie. You need to be a beauty pageant expert to understand the story. There are many women in the world who would actually do those things and more to become beauty queens. I personally love this movie.
The Eve Of Gilbert Mulroneycakes gave it a 3:
Miss Sally Field deserved a better script for her directorial debut. Good cast and all that, but the script is just...someone should have poured acid on the script and made a completely different movie. Or better still, gone and done something else instead. Like punching Jon Bernstein.
Michelle B. gave it a 9:
I love this movie ,all these people who don't like it don't understand it shes a round character and she changed people change over small events whether you believe it or not(im commenting on one person who said that she changed quickly)
Kylie A. gave it a 9:
I thought it had great music, and a funny plot. The rest of you who panned it are middle aged single people with no lives.
