Last Saturday night I was thinking of watching a movie on cable TV as it was usually the premier day of new movies. And it turned out that my decision was correct as there was 1 movie which was never shown in Indonesian theaters but I read somewhere that it was a good film. So I proceed watching it on Fox Movies Premium channel. Now I'll just get on with the movie.
Brief Story Line
A teenage plus-size girl named Willowdean (Danielle Macdonald - Birdbox etc) had been living with her aunt Lucy (Hilliary Begley) from very young age. But when Lucy passed away, Will had to move back and live with her mother Rosie (Jennifer Aniston - The Break-up, Friends TV series etc) who was a former beauty queen in their hometown Texas. Will who was also nicknamed Dumplin' by her mother, had a best friend since childhood named Ellen (Odeya Rush - The Hunter's Prayer etc) and they both went to the same school.
As former beauty queen, Rosie was always asked to become host of a Miss Teen Bluebonnet pageant. However this resulted to Rosie's resentment and intimidated feeling as she thought her mother only see through physical appearance. As part of a protest, Will decided to enter into the pageant with Ellen. This action was soon followed by Will's school friend and also a plus-size girl Millie (Maddie Baillio) who was serious in participating the pageant, and a gay girl named Hannah (Bex Taylor-Klaus - The Killing TV series etc).
Despite the disapproval from her mother and the various complications resulted from this protest, Will still went through with it. So what would happen to Will and her mother Rosie? Find them all in this quite fun coming of age drama movie.
End of Brief Story Line
When I read the synopsis of the film, I thought this movie would be more of a comedy but after finishing it, I felt that this one was a real coming of age drama with little humor. In fact I thought the topic was quite heavy and focused a lot on the mother-daughter relationship plus the importance of self confidence. So I guess it was my own fault for over expecting this to be a movie where I could have tons of laughter, probably because I was thinking it would be like the Netflix original series Insatiable (I would be writing about that series soon).
Anyway, I am not saying that this is a bad movie. It had some nice and touching moments and there were few fun moments as well. There was a bit of a romance too and the topic was a wonderful one, definitely good for family. The mother-daughter story was something that is quite realistic and I think it still happens in society. The movie itself was based on a young adult novel of the same title written by Julie Murphy.
I understand this film had a high critical rating which is understandable with the topic and story. I myself quite enjoyed the performance of the 2 main leads of Danielle Macdonald with her often sarcastic dialogues and in particular Jennifer Aniston's portrayal of the former beauty queen. I also liked the ending which I thought was satisfying for all. The music in here was mostly country songs from the famous Dolly Parton. In fact there were quite a lot of scenes that I felt was truly honoring her.
Overall this was a good family movie, a film that should be able to instill self confidence in girls and hopefully open the eyes of mothers when it comes to their daughters. As a drama movie, I thought this was good enough, but as it was more drama than comedy as per my expectation, my enjoyment was a bit reduced. Most likely if I watched this together with my wife, it would have been more entertaining and fulfilling as she is a sucker for this kind of film (I could already picture her teary eyes in many scenes and possibly applauding in certain parts too). So if you are looking for a good quality mother-daughter movie with relevant topics, this would be a good option. But if you are hoping for a lot of comedies, then this might not be to your liking as it felt quite serious. The choice is yours.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
PS: Netflix acquired distribution of this movie, which would explain the poster having Netflix name on it.
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