First off - FAT GIRL is not a "bad" film. It's actually a pretty solid coming-of-age tale that ends up being marred by the "shocking" ending which comes totally out of left field. There's an interesting story to be told here, too bad it gets cut short by the end-scenes, which feel to me as though they were included strictly for shock-value and to liven up the film a bit, or as a way to abruptly conclude a film without committing to any real resolution.
A family on vacation repeatedly shows the audience their dysfunctions, especially amongst the two young sisters - one a 15 year old beauty, the other, her slightly younger sister who is the "fat girl". During the vacation, the hotter sister meets an older boy who uses all of the typical adolescent/young-adult lines to get her to give up the goods. Of course this works - and we get some relatively explicit (full-frontal from the chick, guy shows his boner, no penetration) lolita scenes. The mother finds out about her daughter's deflowering and starts the long drive home. There's lots of crying and finger-pointing between the mother and two daughters, and eventually the mother tires and pulls over at a rest-stop for the night. As the mother and hotter sister are sleeping in the front seat ***Spoilers*** out of nowhere - a hatchet wielding maniac smashes in the windshield, hits hot sister over the head with the hatchet (killing her) and strangles the mother to death. Fat Girl runs into the woods where she is pursued by psycho-hatchet-wielder who then rapes her. The cops find the crime scene with Fat Girl as the sole survivor...THE END...
FAT GIRL reminded me too much of another over-rated "shocker" - IRREVERSIBLE, in that most of what will be talked about in the film is the one scene of brutal violence. In FAT GIRL's case, there's some (simulated) under-age sex too to cry about for all the morality-cops out there, but for the most part - the shock scenes are all that anyone's gonna notice. It's a shame too, as unlike IRREVERSIBLE which I found dull and with no real "point" - FAT GIRL's story of lost youth and innocence and familial discontent are universal concepts and were handled rather well until the completely disjointed and out-of-place ending. Now, I dig shock films way more than the average film viewer - but unfortunately the ending of FAT GIRL just seemed like a cheap cop-out to an otherwise decent film. Again, not a terrible film (hence my slightly above average rating) - but my disappointment in both the ending of the film and the hype I'd heard surrounding it, drop this one down several notches...6/10
A family on vacation repeatedly shows the audience their dysfunctions, especially amongst the two young sisters - one a 15 year old beauty, the other, her slightly younger sister who is the "fat girl". During the vacation, the hotter sister meets an older boy who uses all of the typical adolescent/young-adult lines to get her to give up the goods. Of course this works - and we get some relatively explicit (full-frontal from the chick, guy shows his boner, no penetration) lolita scenes. The mother finds out about her daughter's deflowering and starts the long drive home. There's lots of crying and finger-pointing between the mother and two daughters, and eventually the mother tires and pulls over at a rest-stop for the night. As the mother and hotter sister are sleeping in the front seat ***Spoilers*** out of nowhere - a hatchet wielding maniac smashes in the windshield, hits hot sister over the head with the hatchet (killing her) and strangles the mother to death. Fat Girl runs into the woods where she is pursued by psycho-hatchet-wielder who then rapes her. The cops find the crime scene with Fat Girl as the sole survivor...THE END...
FAT GIRL reminded me too much of another over-rated "shocker" - IRREVERSIBLE, in that most of what will be talked about in the film is the one scene of brutal violence. In FAT GIRL's case, there's some (simulated) under-age sex too to cry about for all the morality-cops out there, but for the most part - the shock scenes are all that anyone's gonna notice. It's a shame too, as unlike IRREVERSIBLE which I found dull and with no real "point" - FAT GIRL's story of lost youth and innocence and familial discontent are universal concepts and were handled rather well until the completely disjointed and out-of-place ending. Now, I dig shock films way more than the average film viewer - but unfortunately the ending of FAT GIRL just seemed like a cheap cop-out to an otherwise decent film. Again, not a terrible film (hence my slightly above average rating) - but my disappointment in both the ending of the film and the hype I'd heard surrounding it, drop this one down several notches...6/10