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Jack Black, Gwyneth Paltrow
Compassion - A
Rosemary is a kind, thoughtful person. She is presented as someone with
incredible inner beauty.
Realism - C-
She's played by Gwyneth Paltrow in a fat suit. For all the similarities
between her and her in a fat suit, they could have just picked a fat actress
to play her instead and dubbed her voice over it. She also dresses pretty
scantily for someone who has as low an opinion of her looks as her character
does.
Fat Jokes/Stereotypes - low F
Overeating - Rosemary eats nothing but junk food in the film. She and
Hal order something when they first eat out together. He is not even able
to finish this presumably large meal, but she is. They are served a huge
milkshake with two straws and she drinks the entire thing in just a couple
of seconds--while Hal's head is turned. When someone comes into Hal's office
with cake, she invites herself to "a little sliver" then takes a quarter
of the cake and walks off eating it with her hands. When they are at a restaurant
later, she eats his food as well as hers. Other food items she orders/eats
are nachos with the works and a caramel apple. She is not shown eating something
healthy even once.
Breaking furniture - This one hurt the most. Both times it happened, it
felt like a slap in the face as i was watching it. A steel chair in the first
restaurant breaks, flattening completely to the ground with the legs bent
in all directions. In a later restaurant, her entire half of the booth they're
in breaks into splinters (a piece of furniture that should be able to support
three adults).
Hideous clothing - None of the fat women are shown wearing cute outfits.
They're all either frumpy, tacky, or ill-fitting. Even shown on Gwyneth,
one of Rosemary's shirts is stretched across her chest so that it gaps between
the buttons a bit.
Oversized clothing - Both are underpants. First she's shopping and inspecting
a pair (Hal asks her if she's looking for a parachute or if she's using
it as a sail). Later she takes off a pair. Both pairs are twice as large
as they should be even for her actual size.
Overemphasis on the effect of her weight - Besides the breaking furniture,
the effects her weight have on objects is exaggerated ridiculously. The
most obvious is the pool scene. First she gets on the diving board. There
is the sound effect of THUMP, THUMP, THUMP as she walks to the end of the
board (which dips more than it should). Then when she jumps, the water splashes
a boy in the pool up into a tree and puts out the fire in a grill several
feet from the pool. A little earlier in the movie, when the Rosemary
and Hal are in a canoe, it tips so much on her side that his end rises up
out of the water and he's "rowing" air. He actually tries to pick her up
at the end and is not even able to budge her. When they get in his friend's
car together, the car bottoms out on her side when she gets in.
Other - She is constantly self-deprecating. For someone who wears a bikini,
blue-jean cutoffs, and form-fitting clothes (except for the frumpy stuff
at the end when Gwyneth is wearing a fat suit), she has an incredibly low
opinion of herself--even to the point that she gets angry when hal tells
her she's beautiful. Also, stereotypes of fat people aren't the only ones
in the film. "Attractive" people are portrayed as being ugly on the inside
while "unattractive" people are portrayed as beautiful on the inside. No
one in the film turns out to be just as beautiful/ugly on the inside as they
are on the outside. If the message was supposed to be not to judge a book
by its cover, then they weren't conveying it very well.
Other Elements - B-
The really sad thing is that this movie could have been good. The dialogue
was fine, the actors playing the two main characters did well in their roles,
and fat jokes and stereotypes weren't an intricate part of the script itself.
It would have been a decent romantic comedy without those last two elements,
but they chose to put them in anyway. Had they left out the fat jokes and
stereotypes, it would still have been funny--the scene at the beginning where
the two men are dancing terribly in the club was one of the most amusing moments
in the film for me. As for the message they say they intended--while I like
the idea, I feel the end doesn’t justify the means.
Average - D+