The Beautician and the Beast

Joy Miller is a New York beautician whose career and personal life have stalled when she is offered work in Slovetzia, a small Eastern European country still governed by old customs. Boris Pochenko, its stern widowed leader, wants an American tutor for his three children. His envoy in New York mistakes Joy for a science teacher, and she mistakes the job for a chance to style hair in a royal setting. She arrives at the castle to find a household and a nation bound by tradition, and begins to loosen both while clashing with the humorless Boris. The misunderstanding at the heart of her hiring drives much of the comedy.

Ken Kwapis directed the film, which came after Dunston Checks In among the features he had made up to that point. Fran Drescher plays Joy, Timothy Dalton plays Boris, and the cast includes Michael Lerner, Ian McNeice, Patrick Malahide and Lisa Jakub; Todd Graff wrote the screenplay and produced with Hawk Koch.

Released in February 1997, the film had a budget of about 16 million dollars and took in roughly 11 million worldwide, so it fell short of its cost at the box office. On IMDb it holds 5.5 out of 10 from around 11,000 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 6.7 from a much smaller group of voters. A critics' rating of 4.5 from 22 reviews places it below even the IMDb audience figure, suggesting reviewers were harsher on it than general viewers were.