The Beautician and the Beast (1997)

17% of critics liked it
(18 reviews)
42% of users liked it
(28,312 ratings)

Joy Miller (Fran Drescher) is a beautician who teaches an evening course in hairstyling at a Brooklyn community college. When a cigarette dropped on a wig leads to a fire, Joy saves the lab animals kept in the building and achieves 15 minutes of local notoriety. Grushinsky (Ian McNeice), a… More Joy Miller (Fran Drescher) is a beautician who teaches an evening course in hairstyling at a Brooklyn community college. When a cigarette dropped on a wig leads to a fire, Joy saves the lab animals kept in the building and achieves 15 minutes of local notoriety. Grushinsky (Ian McNeice), a representative of the leader of the small Eastern European nation of Slovetzia, is visiting the United States while looking for a tutor for the leader's three children. Thinking Joy teaches science (apparently the Slovetzian government doesn't check the resumes of their teaching staff too closely), Grushinsky offers Joy the job, believing that it would be good PR to have a well-known American educator on hand. Joy takes the job and must now deal with Boris Pochenko (Timothy Dalton), the grim and humorless tyrant who rules Slovetzia. Joy's low-brow fashion sense and broad nasal twang of a voice don't sit well with Boris at first, but the kids love her; in time, she teaches Boris to lighten up and enjoy himself, and romance begins to bloom between the unlikely couple. While Fran Drescher had a number of film roles before her TV series The Nanny, this was her first starring role following the show's success. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Play Trailer

Rating, Runtime: PG, 1 hr. 45 min.
Directed By: Ken Kwapis
Written By: Todd Graff
Genres: Comedy, Romance

In Theaters: Feb 7, 1997 Wide
On DVD: Jun 24, 2003
Studio: Paramount Home Video

Critic Reviews

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
Manages to be sweet and likable, largely because Kwapis directs the actors well and treats the sub-Lubitsch material as if he actually believed in it.
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com
Cheesy, multi-accented culture-clash comedy that's seldom funny
Michael Dequina, TheMovieReport.com
As hokey and banal as a sitcom, with predictable culture-clash gags and fairly flat one-liners.
Bruce Bennett, Spectrum (St. George, Utah)
A charming surprise
Scott Weinberg, eFilmCritic.com
Standard feature-length sitcom material. For Drescher fans only.

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

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Featured Audience Ratings

Dead A

The intro was hilarious. Fran Drescher was and still awesome in her own way. Many people might not like her voice but I even enjoy that! I loved The Nanny but couldn't love this in that way. It was okay. Got some funny moments into it but not that hilarious.
Dean M

Good giggle-producing combination of The Sound of Music and every fairy tale cliche pairs a tyrant (Timothy Dalton) with a New Yorker (Fran Drescher), and he doesn't stand a chance. The two are in each other's face so often that romance inevitable blooms.… More
Good giggle-producing combination of The Sound of Music and every fairy tale cliche pairs a tyrant (Timothy Dalton) with a New Yorker (Fran Drescher), and he doesn't stand a chance. The two are in each other's face so often that romance inevitable blooms. Royal pageantry is a visual bonus.
jay n

If you like Fran you'll like this if not stay away.
Curtis L

I repent the day I ever saw this.
Sanjaya &

Watch it in HBO... It was a very funny movie....
Leigh R

So funny.
Sunil J

Fran Drescher was so much more charming in this then she ever was in the Nanny.
Nicky M

Just plain baaaaaaaaaaaaad
Leo L

I'm not a Fran Drescher fan, but for some reason this movie beyond my own understanding, I can't help but like to watch. Maybe, its Tim. Dalton..no...who cares!? Its hilarious!!