Do you believe the myth that thin pretty women have a much easier fabulous life? What happens if you are not happy with how you look, and one day after a bump on the head you see yourself how you wished you look? The writing team from “The Vow” and “Never Been Kissed” Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein have joined forces again (adding director to their credits) to answer those questions in “I Feel Pretty”.
Amy Schumer (Trainwreck) stars as Renee Bennett, an average woman who has a decent job and spends her free time with her best friends Jane (Busy Philipps, Cougar Town) and Vivian (Aidy Bryant, SNL). She has low self-esteem and dreams of the day when she will be thin and beautiful, but after an accident during a SoulCycle class that rattles her skull, Renee believes her dreams have come true as she sees herself as she wants to be, while everyone else sees her the exact way they did before. Adding to the cast of characters is Mason (Adrian Martinez, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty), Avery LeClaire (Michelle Williams, Manchester by the Sea), Ethan (Rory Scovel, The House) and Lily LeClaire (Lauren Hutton, American Gigolo), all of whom play their part to flesh the story out a bit more and add some other perspectives.
There are some scenes in this film that hit a few nerves with me like the moment near the start where Renee is out shopping and has an interaction that may be all too familiar to a lot of us. The script does deal with very real issues of self-image and the impossible standards that media and the like tend to try to hold all of us to, but my only issue is there is a sub plot that really didn’t add anything which results in a runtime that is a bit more than it should be. Otherwise, I did enjoy my time seeing this movie, and I hope its message comes across to those who need to hear it.