"I Feel Pretty" (PG-13, 1:50) is a comedy (with a good bit of drama and some fantasy mixed in) starring Amy Schumer as an insecure young woman who gets the chance to find out what it's like to live the life of a beautiful woman. The movie is co-written and co-directed by both Abby Kohn and Mark Silverstein.
Schumer plays Renee Bennett, one of two workers in the online division of a fictional make-up company called Lili LeClaire. She works across from a skeezy co-worker named Mason (Adrian Martinez) in a small office under a Chinese restaurant. She dreams of working in the main office on Park Avenue - and being as beautiful as someone like Mallory (Emily Ratajkowski), another woman in her spin class. But alas, she feels stuck in her dead-end job, in her unremarkable overweight body, with all of her insecurities and practically invisible to everyone but her two best friends, Vivian (Aidy Bryant) and Jane (Busy Philipps).
Then, one otherwise ordinary day (the night after watching "Big" on TV and then literally wishing for beauty as she throws coins in a fountain), as Renee is feeling especially inspired by the exuberant leader of her spin class, she gets a little too excited on her bike, falls off and her hits her head. When she comes to, she looks in the mirror and believes that she has suddenly become supermodel-beautiful. Renee practically explodes with excitement and triumphantly meets her confused friends in a bar, convinced they won't recognize her anymore and works hard to "convince" them that it's really her - Renee!!
Convinced that she's now thin and beautiful, Renee suddenly has a confidence that has significant and immediate effects on her life - personally and professionally. In a dry cleaner's, she meets the kind but shy Ethan (Rory Scovel), who doesn't understand her apparently exaggerated confidence at first but soon starts dating her (which has repercussions for her relationship with Vivian and Jane). Renee also improbably gets a job in the Lily LeClaire headquarters, where her confidence and capabilities come to the attention of the beautiful, but insecure Avery LeClaire (Oscar nominee Michelle Williams), who is running the company for her kind, but demanding grandmother, founder Lily LeClaire (Lauren Hutton).
"I Feel Pretty" is well-intentioned, but wholly predictable and only mildly entertaining. Its strength is its life-affirming, empowering and timely advocacy of self-worth and confidence in (and in spite of) the age of Facebook and Instagram, but it's only marginally effective in delivering that message. Based on the character and plot set-up in the previous paragraphs (assuming that this wouldn't be your first time seeing a movie), you can probably write the rest of the story in your head and be pretty accurate. Much of the supporting cast is bland in their roles (except for Williams who is game, but annoying in hers) and even Schumer's considerable comedic talents only give us an occasional chuckle. This movie is, at best, a respectable but muted nod to the undervalued. "B-"
Schumer plays Renee Bennett, one of two workers in the online division of a fictional make-up company called Lili LeClaire. She works across from a skeezy co-worker named Mason (Adrian Martinez) in a small office under a Chinese restaurant. She dreams of working in the main office on Park Avenue - and being as beautiful as someone like Mallory (Emily Ratajkowski), another woman in her spin class. But alas, she feels stuck in her dead-end job, in her unremarkable overweight body, with all of her insecurities and practically invisible to everyone but her two best friends, Vivian (Aidy Bryant) and Jane (Busy Philipps).
Then, one otherwise ordinary day (the night after watching "Big" on TV and then literally wishing for beauty as she throws coins in a fountain), as Renee is feeling especially inspired by the exuberant leader of her spin class, she gets a little too excited on her bike, falls off and her hits her head. When she comes to, she looks in the mirror and believes that she has suddenly become supermodel-beautiful. Renee practically explodes with excitement and triumphantly meets her confused friends in a bar, convinced they won't recognize her anymore and works hard to "convince" them that it's really her - Renee!!
Convinced that she's now thin and beautiful, Renee suddenly has a confidence that has significant and immediate effects on her life - personally and professionally. In a dry cleaner's, she meets the kind but shy Ethan (Rory Scovel), who doesn't understand her apparently exaggerated confidence at first but soon starts dating her (which has repercussions for her relationship with Vivian and Jane). Renee also improbably gets a job in the Lily LeClaire headquarters, where her confidence and capabilities come to the attention of the beautiful, but insecure Avery LeClaire (Oscar nominee Michelle Williams), who is running the company for her kind, but demanding grandmother, founder Lily LeClaire (Lauren Hutton).
"I Feel Pretty" is well-intentioned, but wholly predictable and only mildly entertaining. Its strength is its life-affirming, empowering and timely advocacy of self-worth and confidence in (and in spite of) the age of Facebook and Instagram, but it's only marginally effective in delivering that message. Based on the character and plot set-up in the previous paragraphs (assuming that this wouldn't be your first time seeing a movie), you can probably write the rest of the story in your head and be pretty accurate. Much of the supporting cast is bland in their roles (except for Williams who is game, but annoying in hers) and even Schumer's considerable comedic talents only give us an occasional chuckle. This movie is, at best, a respectable but muted nod to the undervalued. "B-"