Yeah, this movie isn't grounded much in actual reality. Yes, I actually watched this garbage start to finish on Lifetime the other night. I usually hate movies like this because they pander to the lowest common denominator, but I also rather enjoy watching stupid and bad movies for some reason...what can I say, it's my guilty pleasure :)
Sure plenty of kids get bullied, but it's usually not so dramatic as the level in this movie, and at least in my high school experience the popular kids weren't so viscious to kids who were fat, zitty, [insert physical flaw or social disorder here]. In fact, they were meaner to each other than they were to other, less popular kids.
I wasn't a popular kid for sure, and I did put on a lot of weight in my junior/senior years, but even when I got to be at the level of obesity, I wasn't outright made fun of for it. I think it might have had to do with the fact that I'm wicked smart, and would always pwn the uninformed kids in debates in political science class, since I actually kept myself informed about world events and politics, whereas they watched the evening news and that was about the extend of their knowledge of anything going on in the world. I was articulate enough to win debates, and I think they knew if they did say anything, my comebacks would be clever enough to make them look stupid, so they kept their mouths shut, I suppose.
I hate how Maggie was portrayed as a pretty pathetic person. What is so amazing about her other than the fact that she won homecoming queen? All you see is a pretty one-dimensional character who is portrayed only as the target of bullying from the kids and criticism from her mother. We don't actually get to know WHO her character is, what her special talents are, or anything.
Maybe when Maggie throws away all her food stashes at the end, I think they were trying to hint that overeating is unhealthy, and that maybe Maggie started to respect herself more, and decided that hiding junk food in her room to eat compulsively wasn't really indicative of self-respect, so she wanted to get rid of it. But you're right, it didn't really fit in with the movie.
One thing that also annoyed me about this chick-flick is that at the end she gets a beauty treatment and suddenly feels so much better about herself. Puh-leeze...if you need an expensive outfit and beauty treatment to feel better about yourself, you have bigger problems to tackle on the inside. It's cool to want to feel pretty and glamourous, I think all women like getting dressed up sometimes, but to me, the message was that you can buy your beauty in the end. I guess since I never wear make-up and think of such things as impractical and silly, I just didn't get the end part. It was lost on me.
In the end, it's a mediocre made-for-TV movie with contradictory plotholes and mediocre acting, and I can't believe I just spent this much time analyzing it...ahhhhhhhhhh, it's time I'll want back at the end of my life! I just feel a little bad for Nikki Blonsky because now she'll always be pigeonholed into the "fat girl looking to find herself" roles, and if she loses weight, Hollywood will go insane by covering it extensively, possibly even cutting into actual News-time (which it's my firm belief that celebrity news should stay on shows devoted to that and stay away from my real news), and fat people everywhere will feel betrayed because their favorite obese homecoming queen sold out and got skinny (even if it's for health reasons).
Incidentally, if you like bad movies for their pure entertainment value like me (can you tell I'm a big Mystery Science Theater 3000 fan?), be sure to check out another gem, She's Too Young - here's a link - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0385278/ - it's very After-School-Specially...it's a movie about the horrors of teen sex, and it's almost insultingly condescending, but worth the chuckles that it brings from how overdramatic and crazy the plot gets. Truly worth it if you're looking to throw away a couple hours of your life that you could have spent doing something productive.. :3
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treeline1
16 years ago
Thank you for your thoughtful response! I love what you said about people wanting to "buy beauty." That really sums it up.
Yes, it wasn't a good movie. And yes, Nikki Blonski wll probably have stomach surgery and become skinny and go blonde and it will be on the cover of every rag for months. I think this movie is nothing to be proud of.
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