Review: I Feel Pretty

Amy Schumer plays a woman whose life is turned around when she suddenly and irrationally becomes convinced she’s gorgeous; it's not exactly the most sure-fire concept for a movie in 2018, even if you haven't been reading the various "Amy Schumer's 'I Feel Pretty' is offending women" articles doing the rounds. 

But in bad news for outrage fans, the problem here has more to do with the marketing - Hollywood isn't great when it comes to selling comedies as anything more than crass high concepts - than the film itself; it turns out I Feel Pretty (okay, the title doesn't help) is actually a film in which Amy Schumer plays a woman whose life is turned around when she suddenly and irrationally becomes imbued with the kind of self-confidence most people would kill for.

Yes, the film initially focuses on how fashion world underling Renee Bennet (Schumer) is bummed out by her looks – but it’s clear as she struggles through her day that the real problem isn’t how she looks, but how she feels about those looks. So when a combination of a wish and a bump on the head has her thinking she’s a perfect 10 (importantly, it’s all in her head – there’s no scene where we see a fantasy version of her), it’s the new confidence this gives her that’s the real change. Now she’s going after her dream guy and her dream job, and nothing and nobody is going to stand in her way.

Unsurprisingly in 2018, this is extremely careful to focus on the empowering side of her condition. Even the side characters who you'd expect to be carrying much of the comedy workload - especially Michelle Williams as the hilariously soft-voiced boss of a fashion and make-up empire she's recently taken over from her watchful grandmother (Lauren Hutton) - end up being given a positive spin; those after snarky laughs (even at the expense of skinny models) will come away disappointed.

Being warmly funny rather than side-splitting (the running joke here is that Renee's confidence wins over people no matter what iffy situation she dives into, up to and including a wet t-shirt contest), this constantly threatens to become a blandly insipid rejoinder to numerous meaner films - Shallow Hal is usually mentioned somewhere around here. Hollywood comedies may be increasingly socially aware, but they're yet to come up with ways to make that awareness consistently funny; treating everyone with respect and consideration is an admirable goal, but as the basis for a high concept comedy "everyone gets along" is a tough sell.

Fortunately Schumer, playing a character that’s pretty much sweetness personified, makes Renee someone it’s impossible not to cheer for.  That also makes the extremely predictable third act fall flat: the main thing this film has going for it is seeing Schumer as a charming go-getter, and when that's gone this comes crashing to earth. Still, this is pretty much feel-good film-making personified (the only real bad guy is Renee’s lack of confidence); it’s so firmly committed to doing the right thing that wishing it might have been sharper or funnier just seems mean. 

Anthony Morris

-->