With the expectation that I would be sitting down to watch a naff film with an unintelligent story line, ‘I Feel Pretty’ is perhaps once of the best teenage films I have seen for its important message told in an appealing, charismatic and refreshingly sophisticated way. Amy Schumer (37) proves that she is more than just the woman we can rely on to give us some cheeky innuendos in a film where she can be taken more seriously because of the way she tells her story.
The film has all kinds of messages attached to it, ones that all women feel and no but prefer not to confront. It gives us women a chance to reflect and think to themselves how they might relate to Amy’s character, Renee Bennett, who has all kinds of typical worries with her appearance, her weight in particular. At the start of the movie we see a compilation of what the majority of us would consider to be beautiful women to set the scene: ’10 feet tall’ with long legs, spidery skinny bodies, perfectly stylised hair, with sharp jawlines and the perfect smoulder to be jealous of. It immediately makes us aware of the films overall story and the pressures women feel to ‘have it all’, a perfect and flawless image.
What makes it even more modern and totally relatable is that Schumer opens the film speaking to a receptionist at the gym as she tries to tell her what her shoe size is, doing her best to whisper so that the slim girls in lycra can’t hear her (after all, her size is all that matters to them, right?) Of course it does, well, at least to Renee, until one day, everything changes. After a minor injury to the head, she wakes up to feel totally different about herself, the film’s title ‘I Feel Pretty’ now starting to make sense.
The best thing about the film is that (although Renee feels that her wish to feel pretty came true) she hasn’t actually changed, physically, but the way she sees herself has, drastically. She feels as though she can do anything, comfortable now in her own skin to conquer the world, to secure her dream job and do the things that she has always wanted to do, her insecurities no longer holding her back. Renee proves to herself and others that your appearance should have nothing to do with the way that you look at and feel about yourself but to trust your personality and what you have and to just go with that. All kinds of barriers are broken down, the films ending being one of the most satisfying to watch due to the feel good factor of Schumer’s overall message that she wants audiences to remember.
Co-starring Michelle Williams, Tom Hopper and Lauren Hutton, ‘I Feel Pretty’ is a fresh new take on what it means to be ourselves and how to live our lives. It is funny, witty and uplifting showing Amy Schumer to have more seriousness about her, although not giving up her entire well known comic style altogether.
9/ 10