I Feel Pretty movie review: Amy Schumer's comedy dwells on the same humour it passionately condemns

There are several things I loved about director duo Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein’s latest Netflix comedy film I Feel Pretty, starring Amy Schumer. For one, it has a fascinating premise. It also comes loaded with an important message about identity, potential and self-worth. It deals with such subjects as debilitating insecurities, the importance of self-confidence over physical appearance, and the futility of trying to be someone you are not. All these salient features would have made I Feel Pretty a delicious little watch, had it not been for one little and yet important fact – that the film dwells on the same humour it so passionately condemns. [caption id=“attachment_4887371” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] A still from I Feel Pretty. Netflix[/caption] Renee Bennett is a young woman employed as a website developer for a large cosmetics company named Lilly LeClaire. She works out of a tiny basement office in Chinatown, New York, while aspiring to work as a receptionist for the firm’s plush 5th Avenue headquarters. However, Renee is permanently insecure about her ordinary looks, plus size figure and social awkwardness – and she knows that she will never make it to HQ, a place where everyone seems to have come straight out of the glossy pages of an upmarket fashion magazine. One day, she has a nasty fall and hurts her head in the process. When she regains consciousness, she seems to have magically developed an unabashed self-confidence about her own looks and personality. This leads to hilarious confusions, not least among them being her unstoppable belief that she is the perfect candidate for the role she aspires for. Soon, Renee begins to realise – much to her surprise – how far she can go with hard work, and a strong belief in her own abilities. The film tries to deliver an important message – that although physical appearances are important, they are certainly not as important as being confident about who you are and realising your self-worth. It tries to tell us that there are no shortcuts to success and that it is only hard work, not one’s looks, which takes one places. Particularly praiseworthy is the beautiful change in Renee’s overall personality when she begins to believe in herself – entirely oblivious of the fact all along that literally nothing has changed in her physical appearance. It is heartwarming to see her two best friends Jane and Vivian loving her unconditionally, and heartbreaking when it is their friendship that she stands to lose after beginning to believe that she has undergone a complete makeover. There are some beautiful moments in the film – mostly involving Jane and Vivian, and Mason – Renee’s nerdy co-worker from the basement office. There is also a love angle, involving Ethan – a geeky man low on self esteem himself – who Renee imagines is hitting on her when, in fact, he is clearly not. How Ethan slowly begins to fall in love with Renee is something that the film succeeds in capturing admirably. What really does not work is that all the humour in the film is physical in nature. While the makers of the film think that we are supposed to laugh at the comic situations, they are clearly not funny because doing so would involve mocking the film’s very protagonist on her appearance. It is this dichotomy that is never resolved in the film, perhaps because the makers are completely unaware of its existence. One has to give it to Schumer though. She is brilliant as Renee, and you can clearly see that she has put a sincere effort in her performance. The moments where she shines by dint of her deep understanding of the many insecurities of so-called ‘ordinary’ girls shopping for cosmetics are the most inspiring moments of the film. In is in those moments, that we realise that it does not matter what Renee looks like – all that matters is the value that she can bring to the table. Unfortunately though, she herself is unaware of this, till the film’s climax. The film boasts of an ensemble cast involving current and former supermodels such as Lauren Hutton as grand old woman Lilly LeClaire, who started the cosmetics line many years ago, and whose wisdom helps overcome the potential debacles of her fumbling granddaughter and heiress – Avery LeClair, played beautifully by the extremely talented Michelle Williams. Naomi Campbell stars as the firm’s CFO, whereas in a short but important cameo, Emily Ratajkowski stars as Mallory – a lady at Renee’s gym, who she thinks is the perfect woman, and who is eventually revealed to have the same insecurities as Renee does. Busy Phillips and Aidy Bryant are Jane and Vivian respectively – and they are perhaps the film’s most believable characters – because they are exactly what good friends ought to be like. Rory Scovel is Renee’s boyfriend, and he puts in a genuinely good performance as someone who discovers a whole new side to the girl he had not thought much of at first glance. But none of these strong performances can save the film from that one blunder, that one niggling thought at the back of our minds as we watch Renee being made fun of and wonder how rude and wrong that is. If you can overlook that aspect of it, the film leaves you with a strong and all important message – that unlike hard work and intelligence, beauty is only skin deep. I Feel Pretty is currently streaming on Netflix.