Dan Stevens as the Beast in Disney's Beauty and the Beast

My Favorite Scene: Beauty and the Beast (2017) “Evermore”

Beauty and the Beast was a polarizing film (that still managed to end up being #8 on the all-time U.S. box office chart). Some felt it bettered the 1991 animated classic, some felt that film could never be touched, and some-like me-feel that both can be spectacular. I don’t think the live-action film surpasses its original the way 2016’s The Jungle Book did, but I loved Beauty and the Beast (you can read my review here), despite some flaws, and a huge reason why is Dan Stevens and his musical number: “Evermore”.

Dan Stevens, Beast, Beauty and the Beast

The Beast was, to me, the best thing about the film. Dan Stevens, who most people know from his work on Downton Abbey, gives the Beast a much better, deeper voice than Robbie Benson did. He’s also given THE most spectacular improvement in the film’s soundtrack with a “Music of the Night”-level quality song called “Evermore” that he sings after the ballroom scene as he climbs his crumbling castle in increasing desperation to keep Belle in view as she rides off.


Dan Stevens and Emma Watson in Disney's Beauty and the Beast

One of the few flaws in the 1991 film is that the Beast doesn’t have a song.  He gets a few stanzas in “Something There” and that’s it. Belle has songs, Gaston has songs, the freaking teapot and candelabra have songs, but no song for your male lead? It also helps with another off-note from the animated film. The Beast there goes pretty much catatonic when Belle leaves and doesn’t so much as move until attacked by Gaston. This song serves to show just how hard letting her go was.  Putting a song this amazing at that point in the story was a huge narrative boost, and my favorite scene of 2017 thus far.

Beauty and the Beast, Emma Watson, Belle, Beast

3 thoughts on “My Favorite Scene: Beauty and the Beast (2017) “Evermore””

  1. It’s better than the animated version. I am depressed about lord and miller but in the midst of the Great Deadening of Cinema, Disney has been putting out a lot of great stuff, so there are other worst-of-the-worst offenders in Hollywood I’m going to call out first.


    “Evermore” has grown on me. You were right about it.

    Liked by 1 person

  2. I’ve been in a cynical mood, but I saw a very entertaing film with Sam Rockwell, Anna Kendrick, and Tim Roth, called Mr Right, and it put me in a good place for an hour and a half. You’ll either love it or find it supremely annoying, but the action is incredible and the atmosphere and dialogue offbeat.

    Like

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