Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 5/10
Cast: Amy Schumer, Michelle Williams, Tom Hopper, Rory Scovel, Adrian Martinez, Emily Ratajkowski, Aidy Bryant, Busy Philips, Lauren Hutton, Sasheer Zamata, Angela Davis, Caroline Day, Anastagia Pierre Friel, Gia Crovatin.
When the message is absolutely spot on, when the meaning is clear and embracing and yet the scrawl of writing in which it appears dominates and without favour, you tend to forget the significance, the power of what is being said and instead you focus upon the negative. It is not right of course, it is unashamedly poor form to do so, but in the end being human is all we are, and whilst I feel Pretty is a laudable idea, noble even, the near cliched way it was handled leaves it as a film to be admired from a distance but avoided at all costs up close and personal.
The idea of confidence, of even the smallest words of assurance and praise works wonders in a world often concerned with putting people down, of gaining the upper hand in all walks of life; being confident can sometimes lead to a fall but it is also necessary, it is the balancing of the human spirit to overcome all the odds, or even just be able to leave the house and go about your day. Confidence as a concept in a film though is not to be taken lightly, the use of it has to be sparing, built up, using for the superficial is to feel the contrived nature of the writing and in I Feel Pretty, the contrived is overwhelming, a feel-good film in which the audience already knows how it is going to finish, how the play of the previous minutes ends.
Regardless of how many films you see Amy Schumer in, you cannot but help want to like her performance, to revel in her ability to make people laugh and be sympathetic to her character’s trials and tribulations; yet for all of that it seems that she never truly gets the writing of others in which she would excel, with the possible exceptions of Train Wreck, which perhaps it is no surprise that she was given every possible chance to shine, which she did, seeing as she wrote the screenplay.
It could be argued that Ms. Schumer deserves more care by others to bring out the comedy on the big screen, that her larger than life personality, like all clown and comics, is tempered by the requirement to capture her spirit intently, that she needs a firm script, watertight, unequivocal in its desire to showcase her work, in which to feel the love for her work overall; it is a shame that it doesn’t come in I Feel Pretty, that the message of building confidence in one person can become infectious and natural, falls flat because the writing and the comedian don’t mix.
I Feel Pretty, a film with good intentions but like all well-meaning conversations, soon sours and leaves you uncomfortable with the final result.
Ian D. Hall