I saw this movie a couple of years ago and it offended me for a number of reasons:
I know that they're trying to say it's what's on the inside that counts, which is true, but they're also saying that fat women can't be beautiful, that it's something you have to *look past* in order to see the "true person". Like he loved her *despite* her being 350 lbs. If someone is gonna love me, then they're gonna love all 378 lbs. of me; there won't be anything to "look past". Another thing that proves my point is that they used Gwyneth Paltrow for one of the main roles. Now WHY didn't they use a *real* big woman like Kathy Bates (Fried Green Tomatoes) or Kathy Kinney (Drew Carey Show)? They used Gwyneth Paltrow in a "fat suit", which further makes me believe that they think fat women can't be beautiful or they would have used someone who was really big in order to make their point. Now, I thought that the way they showed what torment a lot of us big women go through everyday with the stares, comments....etc. was good, but they also countered that "good" act with making her eat like a pig and having her chair collapse, which also is a slap in the face to many big people, because not all of us eat too much (I'm a vegan, as well), some of us are big because of medical problems (like myself) and not all of us have had a chair collapse; I haven't. The way that she got made fun of brought back many memories for me being an overweight teen and I think that they could have done a LOT of good with this movie had they actually gotten input from big people and then tried to expose the stereotyping of big people. I give this movie a 1, it only perpetuates the stereotypes I have to live with every day as a big woman as well as many other heavy people, and I found this movie highly offensive.
I know that they're trying to say it's what's on the inside that counts, which is true, but they're also saying that fat women can't be beautiful, that it's something you have to *look past* in order to see the "true person". Like he loved her *despite* her being 350 lbs. If someone is gonna love me, then they're gonna love all 378 lbs. of me; there won't be anything to "look past". Another thing that proves my point is that they used Gwyneth Paltrow for one of the main roles. Now WHY didn't they use a *real* big woman like Kathy Bates (Fried Green Tomatoes) or Kathy Kinney (Drew Carey Show)? They used Gwyneth Paltrow in a "fat suit", which further makes me believe that they think fat women can't be beautiful or they would have used someone who was really big in order to make their point. Now, I thought that the way they showed what torment a lot of us big women go through everyday with the stares, comments....etc. was good, but they also countered that "good" act with making her eat like a pig and having her chair collapse, which also is a slap in the face to many big people, because not all of us eat too much (I'm a vegan, as well), some of us are big because of medical problems (like myself) and not all of us have had a chair collapse; I haven't. The way that she got made fun of brought back many memories for me being an overweight teen and I think that they could have done a LOT of good with this movie had they actually gotten input from big people and then tried to expose the stereotyping of big people. I give this movie a 1, it only perpetuates the stereotypes I have to live with every day as a big woman as well as many other heavy people, and I found this movie highly offensive.