It’s easy to look back on things with today’s goggles and say something was right or wrong. Over the last year it seems a lot of that has started to happen, both for good and bad. Instead of trying to redo the past, I think a better way would be to retell with today in mind and make something that fits how people feel in the now. That is exactly what writers Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein do as they rewrite the rules on being pretty.
Renee (Amy Schumer) is a pretty typical human, you know someone who sees their flaws and lives in them. She works for a high end make-up company but is stashed away where no one sees her except Mason (Adrian Martinez), who would much prefer being left alone than with her. Renee knows she isn’t anything special but it doesn’t keep her from trying to be better, but every time she does make an attempt to improve herself, something goes wrong. It is during one of those self-improvement moments that she hits her head and when she wakes up she sees the world in a whole new way. Instead of not being good enough Renee now sees herself as beautiful and being the best of the best. Her confidence is over flowing and all of a sudden she is making her dreams come true by sheer will, and making the world take notice of her. In doing so she makes new friends, but also becomes distant from her current ones as her new found self-confidence it taking her to new and exciting places. Everything is coming up Renee, that is until things get further complicated as her old world and her new one collide.
Seeing how this film presented itself the 2001 film “Shallow Hal” came to mind as it shares some similar themes. While is does share that basic idea, Kohn and Silverstein made “I Feel Pretty” so much more than what the surface might say. Where ‘Hal’ was all about getting the hot girl, because for him that is all that mattered, for Schumer’s character it is all about her. “I Feel Pretty” feels like it is the perfect movie about how we see ourself and others in 2018 and when we look back at ‘Hal’ we can see how far we have come. The message here is one we should really listen to and Schumer doesn’t disappoint. That’s not to say the movie isn’t without its flaws. The humor for me sometimes feels tame with more moments that make you smile than laugh out loud. The other thing that gets in the way from it being better is the longer runtime as a ninety minutes would have been a little more manageable. With that said, like in life flaws can be overlooked and they are not enough to make you not enjoy yourself. “I Feel Pretty” is the right story to tell now, add a little humor and a lot of smiles and you got movie that just makes you feel good both on the inside and out.