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Monday, March 20, 2017 — 5A

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ACROSS
1 Negative
attention from the
press, briefly
6 Deep-voiced
opera singer
11 “I knew it!”
14 Blazing
15 Gossip spreader
16 Abu Dhabi is its
cap.
17 Change one’s
route to avoid
heavy traffic, say
19 Org. for
marksmen
20 “You __ here”
21 Pipe-cleaning
brand
22 Composer
Stravinsky
23 Likely successor
to the throne
26 Magnificent
29 Epps of “House”
30 Have no doubt
31 Fabulist
mentioned by
Aristotle
34 Soda
37 “You’re confusing
me”
41 Capitol Hill fig.
42 Quarrel
43 Machu Picchu
resident
44 “Me neither!”
46 Sacred river of
India
48 Sprained ankle,
often
53 “Peter Pan” beast
54 Safe place?
55 Help in finding
the hidden
treasure
58 Kept under wraps
59 Climactic show
ending, and a
literal hint to this
puzzle’s circled
letters
62 Blanc who voiced
Bugs
63 “__ bet?”
64 Kind of panel or
system
65 Keats work
66 Annual
celebrations, for
short
67 Plot surprise

DOWN
1 The Crimson
Tide, familiarly

2 In the distance
3 Storied water
barrier
4 Ante-
5 Page turner
6 Way to play
music if you can’t
read it
7 Insurance giant
8 Busybody
9 Good name for a
lover of hearty
meals
10 Paddle
11 Gut feeling at
dinner time?
12 Packers
quarterback
Rodgers
13 EKG organ
18 Smidgen
22 Nest egg
acronym
23 Previously cut, as
timber
24 Penniless
25 Gig equipment
26 Decide not to go
to
27 Loosen, as a knot
28 Cylindrical water
toy
31 Director Lee
32 School URL
ending

33 “Comprende?”
35 Fairy tale starter
36 High-tech appt.
books
38 Sharp-tasting
39 “Exodus” author
Leon
40 Minuscule
45 Tolkien beast
46 __ of Mexico
47 Whistler, but not
his mother
48 Blockhead

49 Jimmied (open)
50 The first Mrs.
Trump
51 Mary Poppins, e.g.
52 Biblical betrayer
55 Timbuktu’s
country
56 “__, poor
Yorick!”: Hamlet
57 Cheeky
59 Pres. #43
60 “Cool!”
61 “Immediately!”

By Bruce Haight
©2017 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
03/20/17

03/20/17

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

RELEASE DATE– Monday, March 20, 2017

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

xwordeditor@aol.com

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‘Beauty and the Beast’ 
is magical and relevant

WALT DISNEY

Emma Watson stars as Belle in Disney’s ‘Beauty an d the Beast.’

Disney brings classic fairytale to life and introduces a modern 
twist to the beloved tale of love loss, inner beauty and adventure

Magical is the first word 

that comes to mind when 
describing Disney’s latest live-
action princess movie remake. 
“Beauty 
and 
the 
Beast” 

captivates 
young 
audiences 

with its stunning effects and 
scenery while respecting the 
story adults know and love 
with a more nuanced punch 
than the original. The sets are 
incredible, from the bourgeois 
palace dripping with golden 
decadence to the tiny little 
village, bursting at the seams 
with boisterous bakers, frugal 
farmers 
and 
mini 
Marie 

Antoinettes. Alliteration aside, 
“Beauty and the Beast” brings 
every child’s storybook hero 
to life beyond the flatness of 
animation into the real-life 
fantasy of live-action.

Our story begins in France, 

at a “Phantom of the Opera” 
style masquerade, completely 
decked 
out 
with 
towering 

white 
wigs, 
extravagant 

gowns 
and 
Stanley 
Tucci 

(“Hunger Games”) playing the 
Harpsicord. We know what 
happens next: The handsome, 
selfish prince is turned into a 
monstrous beast by a sorceress 
who vows he will stay that 
way 
until 
he 

learns 
how 
to 

love 
another 

person. 
Days 

turn into years 
and 
the 
once 

lively, 
vibrant 

palace turns into 
a 
lonely, 
gray 

and 
decrepit 

wasteland. 
We 

then turn to Belle 
(the 
brilliant 

Emma 
Watson, 

“Harry Potter”), 
who 
wanders 

her little town 
in search of something less 
“provincial.” Belle’s beloved 
father 
Maurice, 
played 
by 

the always exceptional Kevin 
Kline 
(“The 
Big 
Chill”), 

takes off for the market but 
gets lost on his way, ending 
a tumultuous journey at the 
Beast’s 
abandoned 
castle. 

When Maurice’s horse returns 
to Belle alone, she takes charge 
and goes after her father, who 
has been taken captive by the 
Beast. In an act of fearlessness, 
Belle takes her father’s place as 
the Beast’s prisoner. While she 
is a prisoner, Belle never lets 
herself become a victim. She is 
strong-willed and poised, and 
has no problem saying “No.”

Belle 
befriends 
the 

household 
staff-turned-

magical 
objects 
whose 

performance of “Be Our Guest” 
is as mesmerizing as it is 
entertaining. The all-star cast 
of enchanted housewares put 
personality and style into their 

animated inanimate personas. 
Ewan McGregor’s (“Big Fish”) 
Lumiere and Ian McKellen’s 
(“Lord 
of 
the 
Rings”) 

Cogsworth 
are 
charming 

and full of clever 
banter. 
Also, 

Emma 
Thompson 

(“Love 
Actually”) 

is 
the 
perfect 

combination 
of 

stubborn 
and 

caring 
as 
Mrs. 

Pots. 
Slowly 
but 

surely, 
something 

that wasn’t there 
before 
begins 
to 

take place between 
Belle 
and 
the 

Beast. Dan Stevens (“Downton 
Abbey”) as the Beast is easy 
to anger, but intelligent and 
caring. The beastly friendship 
takes form over conversations 
about poetry and literature, 
bonding over similar tastes in 
table manners, and a hilarious 
snowball 
fight. 
Meanwhile, 

in the village, Luke Evans 
(“Dracula”) as Gaston and 
his trusted partner Le Fou 
(“Frozen” ’s Josh Gad), put 
on a delightful performance 
in the local pub. The scene 
is lively fun, complete with 
a tabletop tap number and 
Gad’s recognizable vocals that 
couldn’t help but evoke his 
animated alter ego, Olaf the 

snowman.

We all know 

how 
it 
ends; 

there is a dance 
(it’s 
stunning) 

and 
a 
fight 

(it’s scary) and 
suspense 
and 

tears 
and 
the 

final petal, and 
then 
happily 

ever after. While 
the story is easily 
summarized and 
not at all new, 
it still manages 
to 
absorb 
the 

audience. Belle is reminiscent of 
Disney’s original Princess, but 
more empowered than her 1991 
counterpart. Watson’s Belle is 
not simply the bookish daughter 
of a kooky inventor, rather 
an inventor in her own right. 
She is confident; not naive, 
complex, not simple. The Beast 
is not simply an angry loner, 
but a victim of bad parenting 
and high society. The Beast 
is brought to life even more 
with the computer graphics 
that make him, at times, more 
human than beast. Le Fou is 
not simply a blind follower of 
Gaston, but a man in love with 
a man in love with himself. Gad 
perfectly 
captures 
Disney’s 

first foray into representing a 
gay character on screen with 
his remarkable performance 
and subtle hints at his love 
for Gaston. As for Gaston, his 
character is the classic example 
of villainous incitement. He 
riles up the town to destroy 

anything that threatens their 
sameness.

Overall, “Beauty and the 

Beast” 
is 
an 
enchanting 

experience that will please 

children 
and 

adults 
alike. 

The 
film 
is 

able to capture 
the 
fantasy 

of 
the 
story, 

the whimsy of 
the 
cartoon, 

all 
the 
while 

addressing 
topics 
of 

empowerment, 
diversity 
and 

sexuality. 

“Beauty and the Beast” proves 
its worth as a tale as old as time, 
and it is certainly worth yours. 

‘Swimming’ stirs heavy 
questions within readers

Claire Fuller keeps readers on their toes in sophomore novel

Claire 
Fuller’s 
second 

novel, “Swimming Lessons,” 
begins with famous author Gil 
Coleman seeing his dead wife 
outside a bookstore. He follows 
her until she disappears, leaving 
him to wonder if it was actually 
her, or just a hallucination due 
to his age and failing health. 
Either way, Gil spends the rest 
of the book trying to catch up 
to her.

Ingrid had gone missing 

twelve years earlier, when her 
daughters, Flora and Nan, were 
still children. After swimming 
in the lake near their house 
everyday 
for 
years, 
Ingrid 

allegedly drowned one day. 
They never found her body.

After Gil takes a fall, he tells 

his daughters that he’s seen 
their mother. The older, more 
sensible Nan, now working as 
a nurse, doesn’t pay him any 
mind. But the rambunctious and 
bohemian 
younger 
daughter 

Flora seems to have always held 
onto the hope that her mother 
was alive. From the start, Gil 
and Flora have an optimistic 
hope regarding her mother’s 
disappearance that Nan does 
not. Following this hope, Flora 
and Nan move back into their 
father’s house to take care of 
him.

When Gil returns from that 

fateful day at the bookstore, 
the novel shifts form from the 
third person perspective of he 
and Flora’s narratives, to the 
epistolary first person narrative 
of Ingrid. Before disappearing, 
Ingrid hid letters to her husband 
in the multitudes of books that 
line the house like wallpaper. 
Ingrid adds insight to her 
letters through the books she 
chooses to hide them, whether 
it’s “The Great Gatsby” or “The 
Swimming Pool-Library.” It’s in 
the letters that the reader gets 
to know Ingrid, who despite her 

absence, is the most interesting 
and developed character of the 
book.

The different sections are 

marked not only by the forms, 
but also by the personalities of 
the characters. Flora’s chapters 
ground us in the present, but 
in her dreamy, open version 
of the present. In her endless 
belief that her mother could 
be alive, Flora epitomizes the 
danger of hope. For twelve 
years, she’s been tied to a 
ghost, an intangible mother 
figure constantly slipping away. 
Flora’s 
elusive 

hold on the reality 
felt 
by 
others 

manifests in her 
synesthesia, 
her 

ability to smell 
color.

The 
novel 

relies on Ingrid’s 
accounts of the 
past through her 
letters. By reading 
her urgent but ancient words, 
Ingrid comes alive to both the 
reader and to Gil. The letters 
follow a young Ingrid through 
her fall from grace into love 
with Gil, her professor at the 
time. We meet Gil, the real 
Gil, not the decrepit Gil of the 
present, who lectures fiercely 
and shares his beliefs about 
what it means to be a writer.

During one of their classes, 

Gil tells Ingrid and her peers: 
“Forget 
that 
first-edition, 

signed-by-the-author nonsense. 
Fiction is about readers. Without 
readers there is no point in 
books, and therefore they are 
as important as the author, 
perhaps more important. But 
often the only way to see what a 
reader thought, how they lived 
when they were reading, is to 
examine what they left behind.”

By weaving reader-response 

theory into a novel, Fuller 
forces the reader to examine 
how they’re interacting with 
the text, the character and the 
setting while they read. Through 

Gil, the impetus is placed upon 
the reader to truly interact, 
engage and find the nuance 
in each character and every 
choice made. As the letters and 
their relationship progresses, 
children are reluctantly born 
and things settle, and we begin 
to understand why Ingrid might 
have left, like Flora thinks.

In her letters, Ingrid defies 

all expectations and becomes 
a nuanced, complex woman. 
Ingrid 
preemptively 
begins 

her adult life with Gil, who is 
twenty years older than she 

is, 
marrying 

at 
twenty-one 

and 
starting 

her 
family. 

Fuller makes it 
incredibly easy to 
feel all of Ingrid’s 
aches 
— 
her 

dissatisfaction 
with her life, her 
hardships 
and 

displeasure with 

motherhood. Ingrid holds her 
family together, even in her 
absence, through the secrets 
and the conditional love she 
leaves in her wake.

Secrets and mystery, even 

more than the dysfunction 
of the family, prove to be 
the backbone of “Swimming 
Lessons.” The impulsive and 
selfish actions of the characters 
sometimes seem odd, until 
the value system of the world 
is recognized. In “Swimming 
Lessons,” to have a secret or to 
have an experience to yourself, 
is to have power. It is to have a 
story. Gil himself at one point 
explains the prioritization that 
drives the novel.

“Secret truths ... are the 

lifeblood of a writer,” Gil says. 
“Your memories and your own 
secrets. Forget plot, character, 
structure; if you’re going to 
call yourself a writer, you need 
to stick your hand in the mire 
up to the wrist, the elbow, the 
shoulder and drag out your 
darkest, most private truth.”

REBECCA LERNER

Managing Editor

REBECCA PORTMAN

Daily Arts Writer

BOOK REVIEW

‘Beauty and 
the Beast’

Walt Disney 

Studios Motion 

Pictures

Rave Cinemas, 

Goodrich Quality 16

Our story begins 

in France, at a 
“Phantom of 

the Opera” style 

masquerade

‘Swimming 

Lessons’

Claire Fuller

February 7, 2017

Tin House Books

FILM REVIEW

