To Be Fat Like Me (2007)

I read some very adamant and strong reviews for this film that all said the same thing and I completely agree. This was marketed as a film for teen girls to feel good about themselves and not obsess over weight but then you watch the film and it's actually directed at skinny people and how they shouldn't make fun of fat people because they have feelings too. How pathetic. It almost made me sick to watch the movie. The girl in the film who is larger is made to look like a loser with real feelings so she should be treated gently. How about not making her a loser in the first place? The film was decently acted but certainly nothing outstanding and the script is downright depressing and written with the maturity and intelligence of an eight year old. The best I can say is that the prosthetics for the main character were well done, better than she should have been able to pull off. The story is incredibly predictable, depressing, and never really comes full circle to make you feel good about what is supposed to be essentially a feel good film. I don't recommend this to anyone...but especially teenagers or anyone looking for some kind of moral message.Lovely Kaley Cuoco plays lovely Alyson, the picture perfect, pretty athlete who has everything going for and apparently is smart too. I actually find her character boring and vapid and I actually think it's not her fault. I think the character was written poorly and the writing overall gives an actor nothing to work with. Caroline Rhea is almost decent as Cuoco's mother who has had past issues with medical problems based on weight. She's struggling with her relationship with her daughter and it is almost the one redeemable quality about the film and the one almost interesting story. Melissa Halstrom plays the larger girl that Cuoco "befriends." On top of having a weight problem Halstrom is written to look like a loser. She has no friends save for one guy who is clearly written as a nerd, geek whatever you want to call them. Halstrom's character doesn't even try to be a likable character. For her first film I suppose she does an alright job but I don't think it helps her case. Brandon Olds is really the only other redeemable character and performance in the film. His character is far more apathetic and he actually gives a good performance.I think I blame the poor quality of this film on the film makers, in particular the director and writer and there really is no excuse for director Douglas Barr who has been in showbiz for decades and has directed many, many TV Specials and shows although I don't know the quality of any of them. Same really goes for M.A. Lovretta who penned the script. She's been writing Television, although not great Television for the better part of the last ten years and coming from a woman writer I would have expected more respect and emotion to a story like this. It's not the worst film I've seen TV or otherwise but I don't suggest it if you think you're going to get a sweet cute little TV money. It's preachy in all the wrong ways and overall boring. 5/10

I married a fat woman (over 300 pounds), being only 145 pounds myself at the time, adopted her three children, and had three more by her; all of them very good looking but some struggling somewhat with weight. She was a wonderful woman, who died from complications to stomach stapling surgery, after we'd been married almost 24 years. She had many physical problems in her last years: fibromyalgia, diabetes, etc. and had the surgery only as a last resort because she'd gotten to the point where we took her places in a wheelchair and she slept in an electric recliner. I never noticed her enduring any particular slurs in public on account of her weight (I am kind of a space case anyway) but she did get anonymous notes from time to time from people who were trying to tell her how she ought to take care of herself.Anyway, I found the movie very interesting and honest. Even the fact that the Aly character could be mean to her mother while trying to be sensitive to Ramona seemed real to me because kids and parents do lock horns at times in ways that are truly baffling.

Okay, so the film is based on a true life documentary right? What's the point in that? You'd probably get much more entertainment from that rather than this film. The insults were just cringe worthy and let's face it, it isn't just a fat person who would get insulted in an American high school. You could be whether you were a size 0 or a size 20. People get bullied ruined for all kinds of reasons. And to make it even more insulting, they use a fat suit! It's just ridiculous. I don't think using a thin blonde girl to 'reveal' the typical ordeals an over weight teenager would have to face would be the way to do it. Seriously just watch "My teenage of daughter is obese" on an episode of Jerry springer or something, you'd be bound to get more laughs!

I didn't expect to like this movie - it seemed like the topic was too easily made into a simplistic 'hurt-emotion' and 'stand-up for yourself' type movie. After all, it was on the Lifetime channel and that is an often-used theme. However, the movie was much better than that and this surprised me.Basically, the story is about an attractive, popular high-school girl that undertakes a project to document what it's like to be fat. Of course, it's easy to predict the basics of the story, but there's more to the movie than just the basic plot element.The real value of this movie is that it doesn't try to be too preachy and shame everybody about having a reaction to 'fatness'. Instead, it explores many different angles and leaves you thinking about the many complex issues involved.The lead character is intelligent and grounded, so it's easy to become interested in her character and follow her as she is confronted with many different situations involving weight. These situations don't just involve her and various high-school cliques, but also her weight-recovering mother and chubby brother.The movie even acknowledges issues that relate to her judgments being affected by the fact that she can step out of the 'fat-suit' life at the end of the day. Because it's able to visit many such angles, the movie keeps a brisk pace and something is happening all the time.While the movie does have its flaws, it remains interesting. Sometimes there are no easy answers, but there's lots to think about. If you want to watch a movie that will leave you with a few interesting, self-reflecting ideas to ponder, this movie is a good choice.