Film Review: I Feel Pretty Shows The Beauty of Confidence
SYNOPSIS: A woman struggling with insecurity wakes from a fall believing she is the most beautiful and capable woman on the planet. Her new confidence empowers her to live fearlessly, but what happens when she realizes her appearance never changed?
When I first saw Amy Schumer’s I Feel Pretty trailer, I was excited and curious as to how the oldest adage, it’s inner beauty that counts, could become a two hour film. It makes sense, in some ways, that confidence is the key to beauty. After all, confidence it the biggest product from the thing we most want in this world: love.
Schumer’s I Feel Pretty has “Tom Hanks’ Big” storyline. The first 15 minutes of the film felt too raw and sad for me. Schumer plays Renee Bennett whose self-esteem is about as high as the floor, and is certainly stepped on by others. From struggling at the bar to get drinks or having fellow ladies passive aggressively comment on her “beauty choices”, EVERY WOMAN will relate to Renee, and how she, literally, stares at the mirror and tearfully calls herself stupid, ugly, and disgusting. The way she looks at herself like she does not deserve to exist, because she is not pretty enough, is too relatable amongst women. Moreover, it cuts her off from opportunities like, getting her “dream job” or finding dates. Why? Because her lack of confidence might as well pour out of her like spiritual sweat. Hence, when Renee becomes RENEE, thanks to a bump in the head, you kind of cheer.
RENEE, as I cap, is really charming. She is so aware of her wants and needs and not her looks and others’ opinions of it. This gives her time to have fun, get her dream job, and be a genuine uplift to people around her. I did not realize how much time you waste crying over how you do not deserve better over actually trying to get it. Yet, when you she how Renee becomes RENEE, it hits you. Everybody stares at her, shocked that she finds herself so beautiful, but also challenged as to whether they find themselves so great. Every character in this film carries an insecurity over whether they are “enough” to be happy. You have RENEE’s boyfriend Ethan (Rory Scovel) who feels too “sweet” and into Zumba to be considered a “guy’s guy”, and RENEE’s new friend Mallory (Emily Ratajkowski) whom is unbelievably gorgeous but cannot find a man that sees she has a pretty mind, too. Even RENEE’s new boss, Avery LeClaire (played HILARIOUSLY by Michelle Williams) feels unworthy of her title and annoyed by her baby voice. The point is everybody feels too less to be happy.
I saw I Feel Pretty in a packed screening, and there was a really powerful moment we all saw coming: when RENEE hits her head again, and goes back to being insecure, “thinks she’s ugly” Renee. As she wakes up, goes to that mirror, and returns to see herself as a human abomination, people literally said “Awwww”. There was a mass, audible disappointment because we felt we had lost a really cool person and we did. Renee goes back to self-sabotaging herself, and absorbing every negative comment about her as a justification for why she should. This moment made me wonder of the many times I and others have cut ourselves off from the best version of our self because we thought we were too dumb, too boring, too ugly, or too “something negative” to be our greatest. It was a sad realization that Schumer delivered with good laughs, open positivity, and some really funny, physical comedy.
I went into I Feel Pretty thinking it was a film about body positivity, but it is actually about spiritual positivity. It is a movie about being your own cheerleader and not your worst enemy. RENEE gets rejected exactly like Renee and suffers her losses, but unlike Renee, she has her wins and never runs off calling herself a loser. This attitude motivates her to keep going until she wins. Albeit, she has her arrogant bouts, especially against her awesome friends, but, in the end, RENEE and Renee learn beauty is not in the eye of the “beholder”: it is in the eyes of its carrier. Be confident and you will be happy, and then you will truly be beautiful. I Feel Pretty Comes Out In theaters On April 20.
