Starring Brendan Fraser (The Mummy, The Whale, George of the Jungle), Elizabeth Hurley (Austin Powers), and Frances O’Connor (Mansfield Park, Madame Bovary), the 2000 film Bedazzledwas hardly lacking in star power. Frasier was originally going to star in The Wedding Plannerbut dropped out to join Bedazzledinstead, a remakeof the 1967 film of the same name.
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At the time of its release, Bedazzledwas met with mixed reviews despite grossing $90.3 million dollars, a profit from its $48 million budget. Critics praised Elizabeth Hurley’s performance, specifically in her role as the devil, while decrying her press events for the film given that it came out during a Screen Actors Guild strike.
Given the premise of the movie — Brendan Fraser’s Elliot makes a Faustian bargain with the devil in exchange for seven wishes to use as he chooses — several cast members get to play multiple parts, with their characters changing as Elliot makes his wishes. Paul Adelstein (Prison Break, Private Practice) starts the film as Elliot’s reluctant co-worker but transforms into a beach jock, a sportscaster, and an aide to President Lincoln throughout the movie’s events.
Praise of Elizabeth Hurley was Warranted
In a film that flounders at times, one consistent great thing about it is Elizabeth Hurley as the Devil. For the remake, the screenwriters decided to make the Devil into a woman, a change from the 1967 film, which only served to enhance the film. Much of the initial tension and comedy between Elliot and the Devil stems from Elliot not believing that a hot woman would be interested in him, and then he’s not convinced that the hot woman would be the Devil despite her skin-tight red clothing.
Hurley has excellent comic timing, something the movie allows her to indulge in. While Hurley doesn’t play any other characters besides the Devil, she often changes costumes based on where the story has ended up. Most notably, she wears a police officer uniform to fry a traffic intersection to cause a multi-car collision and then take Elliot to his cell when he’s arrested for being drunk and disorderly upon telling a Priest that he’s sold his soul to the Devil. With these costume changes, Hurley’s Devil persona changes ever so slightly. She puts on mock innocence when dressed up in a Halloween costume of an Angel and is more litigious when dressed as a lawyer.
An Enjoyable Performance from Brendan Fraser
Bedazzledsets up protagonist Elliot as a doormat who can’t tell that his office buddies are actually his bullies and who has little to no experience with women. Frasier has no trouble selling this role, with the performance already believable in the initial credit sequence where Elliot tries to go into his office building but gets stuck holding the door. After a failed proposition to office crush Allison Gardner (Frances O’Connor), Elliot admits he’d give anything to have her in his life.
Desperate to have any attributes that would draw Allison to him, Elliot tries on a variety of personas through his wishes. He goes from a Colombian drug lord — he’d wished to be rich and powerful — to Abraham Lincoln because he wanted to be President of the United States. The drawbacks of each wish are played for laughs. His wish to be articulate and have Allison fall head over heels for him makes him a smart, gay novelist, while his wish to be a professional basketball player inadvertently grants him a small dick.
Frasier’s earnestness as Elliot helps the audience root for the character at a time when it’d be easy not to. Twenty-six years later, there’s no shortage of movies about men making wishes to win the girl of their dreams, not taking into consideration what said girl actually wants. In a rare move that holds up, Bedazzledmade Elliot an actual sincere guy in having his last wish be to give Allison a happy life regardless of what that meant for him. In the end, Elliot doesn’t end up with Allison Gardner. With confidence he didn’t possess before, Elliot asks her out, only to find that she’s seeing someone.
He takes the rejection in stride and ends up befriending new-in-town Nicole Delarusso, and they embark on a romance during the ending montage of the film. The woman’s completely different from the one he’s spent the whole movie trying to romance. Well, except for the fact that she’s also played by Frances O’Connor.
So, if Bedazzledwasn’t on a Brendan Fraser rewatch list before, consider adding it. The film is lighthearted and comedic, never staying in a low point for too long. The actors are great and the film serves as a snapshot of the 2000s without feeling painfully dated.
How has Bedazzledheld up in your opinion? Let us know in the comments below!
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