The Beautician and the Beast is a 1997 American romantic comedy film directed by Ken Kwapis, written by Todd Graff, and starring Fran Drescher, Timothy Dalton, Lisa Jakub, Ian McNeice, and Patrick Malahide.

It tells the story of a New York City beautician who is hired, under the false assumption that she is a science teacher, to tutor the four children of a dictator of a fictional Eastern European nation, played by Timothy Dalton.

The film deals with the theme of cultural differences, and takes inspiration from other stories like Beauty and the Beast, The King and I, Evita, and The Sound of Music.

Produced by Drescher's company High School Sweethearts in partnership with Paramount Pictures, The Beautician and the Beast was her first starring role in a film.

Joy and Katrina go to a nightclub which also operates as a base for those planning the rebellion; Prime Minister Leonid Kleist follows the pair and arrests Alek.

Despite Leonid's advice to fire Joy, she convinces Boris to hold a party for visiting emissaries during a summit meeting to debut his new image; he places her in charge of the preparations.

Cast list adapted from Rotten Tomatoes:[1] Fran Drescher developed and pitched the concept for The Beautician and the Beast,[2][3] which she said was a homage to the musical The King and I (1951).

[5][6] The writer Todd Graff was attached to The Beautician and the Beast during its pitch; Drescher chose him since they had a similar sense of humor and he was already "familiar with her voice and what type of dialogue suits her best".

[5] Kwapis recruited dialect coach Francie Brown to construct the fictional language Slovetzian;[15][16] it contains influences from Czech, Russian, and Hungarian.

[6][18][19] Hunter believed the comparison was intentional given his "tunic, brush cut, inscrutable expression and pious delta of mustache", but added that these markers are quickly dropped to emphasize his transformation into a more democratic leader and "a wild and crazy guy".

[5][25] Barry Monush, a researcher for the Paley Center for Media, highlighted the scene in which Joy creates clothing from Ralph Lauren bedding as the most obvious allusion to The Sound of Music.

[27] AllMusic's Jason Ankeny commended Eidelman for not relying on the "sweetness and sentimentality that capsize so many comedic scores", but he criticized the melodies as "leaden and unfocused, with none of the effervescence the genre demands".

[17][31] Drescher attributed the poor box office returns to the film debuting at the same time as the Star Wars "Special Edition" remaster.

[1][42][43] The Beautician and the Beast was made available for purchase on Amazon Prime Video;[19] it was also released on streaming services Netflix, between April 2015 and October 2015,[44][45] and HBO Max upon its launch in 2020.

[40] According to Drescher, Paramount Pictures president Sherry Lansing described the film's longevity as evident through its high video and cable sales.

[1][16][48] Roger Ebert gave the film two stars, praising Drescher's performance but saying audiences would be unable to empathize with her character, since "we never feel she's really uncertain, insecure or vulnerable".

[49] On the other hand, TV Guide's Maitland McDonagh and IGN's Arnold T. Blumberg considered The Beautician and the Beast to be inoffensive and fluffy enough to be enjoyable.

[50] Reviewers criticized the film as too similar to a sitcom,[18][27][51] including The New York Times' Stephen Holden who said Kwapis and Graff did not elevate the material enough to justify a theatrical release.

[52] In an Entertainment Weekly article, Lisa Schwarzbaum wrote that The Beautician and the Beast and the 1997 film Fools Rush In were "hampered, to greater or lesser degree, by the synthetic conceits of their stretched-out stories".

[23] Commentators felt Joy was just a copy of Fran Fine, Drescher's character on The Nanny,[27][53] and believed the film was a poor example of the romantic comedy genre.

[26] Describing the film as a "dated '90s [romantic comedy]", Grace Montgomery, writing for Common Sense Media, said it relied too much on clichés and stereotypes.

[55] However, in the same year, Lauren Le Vine for the same publication considered the film a classic, and praised the chemistry between Drescher and Dalton as an "awkward friction".

[57] In more negative comparisons, Jeff Vice called Drescher and Dalton inferior actors to Deborah Kerr and Yul Brynner, respectively,[6] and Eric Snider panned her role as "a hell-spawned, snort-laughing Mary Poppins".

[28] Drescher's voice was the frequent subject of criticism;[18][29][58] Maitland McDonagh said she had a "nasal honk [that] could shatter crystal", but believed her fans would enjoy her performance.

The Washington Post's Rita Kempley praised Dalton for his campy style,[60] and the Deseret News' Jeff Vice wrote that he had "well-chosen facial expressions and some subtle nuances".