| Overall Grade: |
D- |
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| Story: |
B- |
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| Acting: |
C+ |
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| Direction: |
F |
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| Visuals: |
F |
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Something good gone so, so wrong
by Nichole (movies profile)
Jun 11, 2007
12
of
16 people found this review helpful
I was really excited about seeing Phat Girlz. Judging from the preview it looked like a witty movie with a good message. Although it did have its moments of wit, the message was obfuscated, and if only the editing were as good as the previews!
Honestly, it is difficult to know where to begin, so I'll start with the worst. I am shocked - shocked - that this movie made it to theatre release, let alone nationwide. The cinematography and editing were simply horrendous - simply unacceptable. Take, for instance, the stock scene of the Nigerians dancing. It was painfully obvious that Monique was edited in because everything was mismatched - color, lighting, film quality, everything! You may have noticed the familiarity between the camera shaking in Jazmin's breakdown scene and The Blair Witch Project. The scenes in which Jazmin's clothing line takes off and the fashion revolution begins are drawn out way too long and seem to start at the end of the movie. In fact, half the theatre left when Jazmin got the phone call announcing the launching of her clothing line.
The soundtrack was uncreative. Who hasn't heard "Romeo and Juliet" in reference to an obsession rather than romantic love? Think Bugs Bunny cartoons.
This brings me to the message, which I mentioned is obfuscated, and it is such a shame, because it's one that needs to get there. In fact, I am angry at the director, producers, and mostly everyone involved for not taking the subject seriously and making a laughing stock of this film through the poor quality and poor writing. My issue is the line between sickness and health. Take a look at women in plus-sized ads. They look healthy, don't they? They look just like skinny, healthy women but thicker. As Tunde told Jazmin, she could never be a size five because of her bone structure - enlightening for some people! This is the message! Unfortunately, it didn't stop there. We were bombarded with a bunch of images of Jazmin stuffing herself silly and it was supposed to be humorous rather than disturbing. I am surprised that no one was offended by this stereotype of thick women. Furthermore, Doctor Tunde never told Jazmin that this was distructive behavior, and we never see her cured of it, even though she has supposedly begun to love herself. Sure, she's beautiful and deserves nice clothes all the time, but any sort of eating disorder is unhealthy whether it leads you to being skinny or thick! Yet Jazmin's cousin is practically applauded for changing her gym obsession into a food obession.
All that said, Monique's acting was pretty impressive. I thought she did pretty well in the breakdown scene. However, she is bascially the exception in this film. I thought Joyful Drake was exceptionally terrible, but in her defense, her character wasn't very deep - yet another writing flaw. |
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