‘The Beast’: Netflix’s New Italian Action Movie

Italian action movie The Beast (La Belva) is available to stream on Netflix since November 27. Produced by Warner Bros Entertainment Italia, The Beast has surprisingly already entered Netflix’s Top 10 Shows this weekend in the U.K., landing at number 5 in its Top 10 Films, a day after its release.

The Beast is an action film that fans of Taken will find familiar. So familiar in fact that you’ll know how the film ends before it even begins. The film is though filled with some interesting action sequences and an engaging premise for its storyline, that will remind you a little too much perhaps of Lynn Ramsay’s, in comparison, excellent You Were Never Really Here. With all the feel-good holiday films being released at the moment, this new release provides a gritty alternative.

As The Beast opens, the film introduces the protagonist, Leonida Riva, played by Fabrizio Gifuni, asking his therapist to up his dosage of medication. Riva is an ex-military who was Captain in the Special Forces. He now suffers from post-traumatic stress. As he attends his daughter’s football match, it becomes clear that his line of work has estranged him from his family. His teen son, Mattia (Emmanuele Linfatti), resents him for it, while on the contrary, his six-year old daughter Teresa (Giada Gagliardi) dotes on him, making sure that he sees her when she scores a goal.

Mattia is so angry at his father that the same evening, he takes Teresa out for burgers instead of going to their father’s for dinner. It is while Mattia goes smoking with his friends behind the diner, leaving his little sister by herself, that Teresa gets kidnapped. Mattia immediately calls his father, and Riva goes on a chase after the kidnappers to find his daughter.

The police are also searching for Teresa, but seem more interested in pursuing Riva than the poor missing girl. Riva is shown always a step ahead of the police, essentially doing the job they should be doing. He is so ahead of them that the police even believe him a suspect. Riva is relentless in his pursuit, getting beaten up, stabbed and even shot at, but none of this violence can stop him finding his daughter.

The Beast is a gripping movie. In terms of action, the film provides plenty of sequences that befits the genre, with some pretty brutal fights. There is a car chase at the beginning, a lot of fist fights between the protagonist and a group of men, and even a torture sequence.

However, in terms of story, it skates on thin ice, because it resembles too much Taken. It becomes clear that director Ludivico Di Martino, and his co-screenwriters, Claudia De Angelis and Nicola Ravera, are big fans of the genre. Some sequences may remind you for example of Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy, while a sequence in which Riva walks through the corridors of a brothel made me think of You Were Never Really Here.

Riva is, however, an interesting gloomy character, prepared to endure anything if it means saving his loved ones. Riva’s PTSD provides an interesting element to the story, one which could have been explored a little deeper. He is haunted by his past in the Special Forces. The film reveals what happened to Riva through a series of flashbacks to a particular event that led him to leave the military. It provides a semblance of depth to the character, without delving too much on the implications.

The Beast is an entertaining action movie, even if the ending feels more anti-climactic than really satisfying, perhaps because you’ll know already how it would end.

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