Movie: The Beast of Love
Director: Terry Mills
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind – A Midsummer Night’s Dream, William Shakespeare
Love – the very work evokes a sense of dream and desire in us. Love, in a way, completes us, gives us a respite after a long journey. The idea of it opens a door to many possibilities in our lives. The word love has been acknowledged since humankind felt the emotion for the first time. This particular emotion drives us crazy, makes us feel elated and troubled at the same time. But in this fast paced world, the true essence of love is slowly disappearing and losing its meaning. As the media sites get filled with fake profiles and misleading elements, people give up on true love.
Finding one true love has become a mere story of the past, and the earnestness is lost, the value of a love with dedication is long gone. Toronto based writer director Terry Mills’ latest fantasy romance drama attempts to capture this particular issue – the trouble of finding love in this age. In the movie, the director presents Stephen, his protagonist, who is searching for a true love. Lying on his bed, Stephen frantically browses through dating sites, only to realize that all the profiles are fake. Accepting defeat Stephen goes to sleep. There in his dream he gets a message from an angel who seems to guide him, and he realizes in order to find his one true love, he must solve the riddle of the bag and cast away the darkness that stops him from reaching his desired destination. Then the story begins to unfold.
According to director Terry Mills, the movie “Beast of Love” is a representation of a story wherever one person wishes to be. He says, “This story was created from just us guys in the locker room after work shooting the crap as we got ready to go home. It has been going on for almost 10 years now and doesn’t show any signs of ending. A sequel is in the works.” It is safe to assume that Terry and his friends have created Stephen, the protagonist looking for love in the movie, from a personal experience. The idea of true love and its pangs guided them towards this film.
Terry uses supernatural elements like the black angel and the white angel to show how they play with Stephen’s plight. While the white angel guides him to his true love and empowers him to fight off the devil, the black creates obstructions in his path.
As Stephen embarks on his journey, he realizes “The course of true love never did run smooth”. The black angel and the white angel symbolize our inner conflicts and make us aware of our follies.
The fantasy movie is shot in black and white colour, giving it a very vintage feel. The actors enact their roles with brilliance. Terry himself portrays the hopeless romantic Stephen, Anne Noble plays the mischievous Black Angel with a brilliant ease, while Linda Wong does complete justice to the White Angel with her soft expressions and calm manner. The movie is well shot and the actors are well coordinated. The movie is of around 8 minutes and in that short span of time, shows its themes well. The music of the movie is uplifting and playful. The treatment of the angels might remind one of Puck from the Bard’s play, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”.
Terry Mills calls himself a writer of people and his characters surely speak of themselves well. The movie makes its viewers nostalgic. Terry’s dreamworld is beautiful and let’s hope that Stephen eventually wins the battle.
