I Feel Pretty, written and directed by Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein - Seven out of 10

I Feel Pretty, written and directed by Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein

Seven out of 10

Surely, this is not the Comedy of the Year.

Critics have rated it on average with a modest, perhaps even downgrading 48 out of 100, on the Metascore list.

Indeed, Amy Schumer is more than charming, talented, scintillating at times, but for some strange reason, the films she has made have not enjoyed anywhere near the success she has had as a standup comedian.

Trainwreck, Snatched or I feel Pretty do not compare – or it is not favorably anyway – with Inside Amy Schumer or her performances at the Apollo and in other locations, that we had the chance to see on HBO – here, on other longitudes, it might be different and she is also on YouTube.

Shallow Hal, with Gwyneth Paltrow and Jack Black comes to mind, when seeing I Feel Pretty.

In the Gwyneth Paltrow vehicle, the character played by Jack Black sees a woman that must weigh close to 200 kilograms as a slim, stupendous figure and the message is beauty has more to do with the soul than with the body.

Amy Schumer is Renee Bennett, let us say that she does not suffer from bulimia, and she is very conscious of that – in fact, she is too concerned and rather depressed about it – and amusing at the same time.

She tries to follow the advice on offer, on television and on so many other outlets, internet, podcasts, and the results are not the ones advertised – perhaps we should say evidently.

This is both funny – the effort to comb the hair in a special way to seduce all eligible men, use a certain cream and various products with magical potential – and distressing for she does not change.

Well, forget that!

She does suffer a tremendous transformation – like in so many previous motion pictures, in one, It’s a Wonderful Life, an all-time classic and one of the best, inspirational features ever made, with James Stewart in the leading role, the angel that descends to help the hero, although second class Clarence, has a glorious contribution and demonstrates that Life is indeed Wonderful.

Only in the case of Renee, when she invokes the other world, a superior being, the forces of good or evil, to help her in her sorrow, the thunder that strikes during the storm has a curious effect.

She has an epiphany – sort of – but of the wrong sort, on one of the levels at the very least.

The heroine starts thinking she is sublime, glorious, divine and “She walks in beauty, like the night”

Nathaniel Branden is the supreme authority on self-esteem and we can only wonder how he would analyze this outré situation, if he were to see the film and share an opinion about it.

The best guess would be that the protagonist does not have self-esteem, for that should be based on a high opinion of self – which she has in abundance of this stage – but without the element of deception.

Renee becomes a Trump- like figure, boasting, annoying her friends – after the initial bedazzlement, confusion and rather comical scene where the new Snow White tries to relate to her companions that she is now resplendent and they cannot recognize her with this new look, but she assures them it is still her and she can prove it with trick questions.

Like the ridiculous clown that is supposed to lead the once great democracy and the free world, the emperor has no clothes – not in the shape and form she has in her now disturbed mind.

However, unlike Fat Donny, Renee still has an undeniable charm, in fact, even this “false „new self-esteem has a fabulous effect, in that it makes her act with ease, without fear, pushing too much to take the center stage, but with miraculous talent and magnetism.

There is the passage where she wants to participate in a beauty contest, where all that come forward have the “once ideal shape” slim, without any extra fat, and Renee thinks she is in the same league.

If she is wrong on the surface, the spirit, stamina, courage, largesse, enthusiasm, creativity, originality with which she takes the stage prove that this and women in general have much more to be proud of and for us to admire inside, their spirit is very often – unless they love Trump – brilliant.

There are on the internet – if this assumption is not wrong – articles that have condemned Amy Schumer for being white and therefore privileged – again, if there is no confusion here – and Bill Maher has defended her and laughed at the idea that she has had to come and apologize for being what she is and all this preposterous circle that is provoked by the fundamentalists of political correctness.

I Fell Pretty is watchable on a night when you might want to rest your brain, for it is not overwhelming, neither in merit, nor in challenges for a mind that wants to work at full capacity.