Black Beauty – Another Emotionally-Manipulative Animal Film (Early Review)

Black Beauty, the story of a black horse starting with 1877’s book by Anna Sewell, has seen countless adaptations across various books, on stage, and on screen. In an age of sequels, reboots, and reimaginings, here is yet again another one. Needless to say, there wouldn’t be so many incarnations for nothing. However, the next question regards what makes this latest version stand out. While that question is not necessarily an easy one to answer, this one gender swaps its leads and sets the story during present day. Though in the end, the film does a poor job standing out by merely throwing a Black Beauty coat of paint overtop of sappy melodrama and a contrived layer of emotionally-manipulative cheese. That being said, the film will still find an audience as it is sure to still appeal to some looking for digestible inspirational fare or simply fans of cutesy animal movies not to mention fans of any past incarnation of the source material of course.

This incarnation of Black Beauty tells the story of the relationship between a young girl named Jo (Foy) and a wild mustang named Beauty (Winslet). Each meeting under unfortunate circumstances, the two formed a lifelong bond spanning all the big moments in Jo’s life. Suffice it to say that each helped the other heal as the film went out of its way to remind viewers of that through cheesy exposition and derivative plot beats. Its contrived and predictable nature won’t surprise anyone but will ultimately survive based on the viewer’s ability to connect with Jo and Beauty, something that is sure to happen for some. While they didn’t start off together, anyone familiar with the source material or any who have seen any other film will know that it was not going to be the case forever. Both broken and separated from their families, their need for connection drove them together. Of course they were the only ones who seemed to understand the other until the rest of the world were forced to catch up (but not everyone would).

Suffice it to say that Jo and Beauty’s bond faced plenty of adversity along the way with their time apart only strengthening their bond. Their relationship wasn’t as simple as Jo thought as she was faced with the real world, one that wasn’t as accommodating of her bond with Beauty. Meanwhile, Beauty was a very intuitive horse, perhaps exceeding normal levels of plausibility, providing the kind of perspective that went beyond what was arguably necessary. Though her bond with Jo was admirable to watch, this got old very fast. Nevertheless, Beauty was still somewhat compelling to watch as she took the brunt of the story, enduring all the obstacles that came in her way in the hopes of reuniting once again with Jo who disappears for a little too long. Ultimately, the end result was inevitable but it still kind of worked.

In the end, though the story may be derivative and cheesy, the best part of Black Beauty and what keeps it watchable was its performances from Foy and Winslet in spite of the subpar material. Foy as Jo was solid in a role that wasn’t overly demanding but showed enough vulnerability and relatability to stand out. The cheese material influenced Winslet’s performance as Beauty, making her more on the annoying side. However, her handling of the emotional side of the character almost redeemed the writing.

Overall, Black Beauty won’t be for everyone but those looking for more animal-based inspirational fare will find it to be a decent choice.

still courtesy of Disney

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.