What I expected: a pretty jock who judges her mother harshly for being overweight, walks in a fat girls shoes, realizes the internal and external pain of being fat. What I got: a movie that goes in too many directions and ends up no where.
On the one hand she is angry with her mom because she had a heart attack (due to being overweight) and the hospital bills took all of her parents savings and left no money for her to go to college. I honestly don't think she would have cared about her mom being fat if there was still money for her to get an education. So her anger had more to do with what she couldn't get, than concern for her mother. On the other hand she has a fat younger brother whom she adores and protects, but doesn't understand why he lets himself get bullied, he tells her what choice does he have being so big, she says it's all in the attitude and how you let people treat you. To win money for school she enters a documentary contest and the subject is that she pretends to be fat, using it as a sociology experiment to see if she would be treated any differently. Well no big surprise that despite being nice to people she gets treated like crap and then befriends a fat girl and a self proclaimed "loser". In the end she still doesn't understand WHY people overeat, or the emotional pain of actually being fat and overeating and she still continues to judge fat people harshly for eating bad foods. So what did she learn about being fat? IMO nothing. A few other side lines, her loser friends, a guy she likes who jokes about a girls mom passing the fat test, i.e. if the mom is fat, dump the girl because she will look just like her mother soon. A father who was passive and it seemed like he wanted to say something important but never does, her not being smart, but being in the fat suit she starts to study and does better in summer school than ever before, the emphasis jocks place on looks and being in good physical condition, but the poor guy gets a headache when she tries to explain what she's going through, that it's better to exist on chemical shakes and veggies, than a balanced diet, etc, etc. I was waiting and hoping for her and her mom to have a real heart to heart and for her to really "get it" but they just sum up their bad relationship in a two minute chat that barely scratches the surface. This could have been SO much more!
On the one hand she is angry with her mom because she had a heart attack (due to being overweight) and the hospital bills took all of her parents savings and left no money for her to go to college. I honestly don't think she would have cared about her mom being fat if there was still money for her to get an education. So her anger had more to do with what she couldn't get, than concern for her mother. On the other hand she has a fat younger brother whom she adores and protects, but doesn't understand why he lets himself get bullied, he tells her what choice does he have being so big, she says it's all in the attitude and how you let people treat you. To win money for school she enters a documentary contest and the subject is that she pretends to be fat, using it as a sociology experiment to see if she would be treated any differently. Well no big surprise that despite being nice to people she gets treated like crap and then befriends a fat girl and a self proclaimed "loser". In the end she still doesn't understand WHY people overeat, or the emotional pain of actually being fat and overeating and she still continues to judge fat people harshly for eating bad foods. So what did she learn about being fat? IMO nothing. A few other side lines, her loser friends, a guy she likes who jokes about a girls mom passing the fat test, i.e. if the mom is fat, dump the girl because she will look just like her mother soon. A father who was passive and it seemed like he wanted to say something important but never does, her not being smart, but being in the fat suit she starts to study and does better in summer school than ever before, the emphasis jocks place on looks and being in good physical condition, but the poor guy gets a headache when she tries to explain what she's going through, that it's better to exist on chemical shakes and veggies, than a balanced diet, etc, etc. I was waiting and hoping for her and her mom to have a real heart to heart and for her to really "get it" but they just sum up their bad relationship in a two minute chat that barely scratches the surface. This could have been SO much more!