To Be Fat Like Me (2007)

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

The movie runs out of plot and jokes well before the end of a two-hour running time, long for a light comedy.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

.Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

I expected this movie to be about body image, and how the world sees and treats 'fat' people, and how they are actually just like everyone else and the resolution would be that people realised that, and started treating overweight people like the human being that they are and that they should start embracing their bodies rather then hiding and believing what everyone else thinks. I was greatly disappointed when the message of the film was nothing of the sort. The movie talks a lot about how weight can greatly effect someones health, leading to diabetes and heart attacks, etc. Ally's mum had suffered from a heart attack because of her weight, and Ally was angry because her hospital bills took away Ally's college fund. Ally believed that her mum made herself sick, because she was constantly mood eating and Ally never let her forget it. Ally's little brother was constantly being bullied, and he thought it was because he overweight, Ally believed it was just because he was a 'smart-ass' to everyone and that 'fat' people all just have the wrong attitude, and if they were more positive (like Ally) more people would like them. When Ally gets the opportunity to enter a film competition where the winnings are $10000 (that she could use for college tuition), she decides to make a documentary about 'fat' people. So she dresses up in a fat suit, and goes to Summer School with hidden cameras and films the way she is treated. She makes friends with a dorky guy, and another 'fat' girl (Ramona). She talks to Ramona and gets her to open up to her, because Ramona thinks Ally understands what she has to go through everyday. She gets 'moo-ed' at and people say things like 'whoa look out fat girl coming through' and 'whale must've gotten lost on it's way back to the ocean.' Ally is hurt by this, because she still keeps her positive, up beat, friendly personality, and the way people treat her, proves her little brother right! Meanwhile, Ally is being a bitch to her mum, has the hottest and popular guy in school crushing her, and still has her rocking hot body. I got three messages out of this movie. 1) 'overweight' people only have themselves to blame, and they need to be more aware of their health problems. 2) In societies eyes, your weight determines who you are as a person 3) You have to be skinny, pretty and popular for the hot and popular guys to like you. Well, my response: 1) True. SOME (not all) overweight people can only blame themselves because they aren't taking care of their bodies, however, football players, swimmers & other star athletes, and perfectly normal healthy people are still considered overweight or 'fat' on the BMI scale, and that makes those people feel like sh*t which leads to perfectly healthy people becoming unhealthy through the way of eating disorders. 2) YOUR CHOICES AND YOUR ATTITUDE DETERMINE WHO YOU ARE AS A PERSON. YOU'RE WEIGHT, HEIGHT, RACE, GENDER, RELIGION ETC. DOES NOT!!! 3) Ugh. The movie was somewhat great! It had a good plot, and a good story line, great acting, but I hated that it ended with a negative message, and that message made me angry and want to shove my head through a brick wall. :) I did like the movie however, I just think it needed a more positive message. **triggering film**

My current favorite TV series is "The Big Bang Theory", and one of the characters is the waitress Penny, played by Kaley Cuoco. So, when I saw that she has the lead in this TV movie, I had to watch.Here she is high school senior Alyson (actually 20 or 21 during filming) who has family issues that may make it difficult for her to go to college. Fortunately she is also a very pretty and popular girl, and a star athlete, so she hopes to get a full ride scholarship. As the season winds down and colleges are evaluating scholarship offers, she suffers a fracture in her leg, and will have to remain inactive for 8 weeks, effectively killing her hopes for an athletic scholarship.However there is a nationwide competition of a different sort and if she can win it, she will have the funds for college. She has a theory that fat people are miserable from their own doing, and that if they would be happy and friendly they would be accepted socially like anyone else. She decides that she will prove or disprove that theory, with the help of two friends.She enrolls in summer school at a different school where no one knows her and, dressed in a fat suit and with a micro camera in her eyeglasses, she plunges in.As we might imagine not everything goes as she hopes it will. She finds out that there really are lots of cruel people who not only look down on overweight people but also make fun of them to their faces.Overall it is an interesting movie. At the end Cuoco delivers a short "public service" type of announcement to us, the audience, about overweight people. The movie mainly walks the fine line without being overly harsh on either segment of the population. People need to be tolerant and accepting of those who are different, but people also need to take care of their health.

well, my father was overweight and died of a heart attack while he was still young.It was his choice, and he did it his way certainly. But what about his children? You may be pleased to have a child and die at 50, but I am not so sure that your child will have feel the same way.so, fat is a feminist issue, but it is also a medical one; i know as i am a doctor.the film does give the male a pass. After showing himself so completely shallow, and that I mean completely, he is given a pass by the heroine. I wonder what she has learned if she can tolerate such behavior. Would she have tolerated racism?

This movie reminded me quite a lot about a book I own and read occasionally. The book was about a homecoming and pageant queen who was pretty, popular, and seemed to live the perfect life. That is until she got fat. In contrast, Kaley Cuoco portrays a pretty thin girl who documents life as a fat person by altering her appearance by wearing a fat suit, and not changing her true self. Life as an overweight individual opened up the true souls of her so called friends. They shunned her, harassed her, and treated her like low life scum. No one paid any attention to her personality, and the fat people at her school thought she was a walking joke. Yet, I really think that the film really makes us realize that who shouldn't judge one by looks, but the sad fact about that is true. We seem to make rude comments about to those who are physically different just because people have low self esteem and zero confidence that they take it on those who appear weaker then they. I'm more on the slender side with blond hair and bluish green eyes. However, I'm physically different that I will not post, but I had my share of experiences with the cruel comments, jokes, and harassment. However, I paid no attention to that because I lived my own life, and true people accepted for who I was, and not my appearance. We cannot help what we look like, unless you want to live a healthy lifestyle, you can make a few changes with diet and exercise. Physical deformities we can't really change, unless you go under dangerous surgeries. I think that 99% of women have image issues and they're unhappy with themselves because they think they can't do better. They fall into depression which can lead to dangerous eating disorders and cosmetic surgeries simply because of what society portrays. I believe that everyone has a "best" about them, whether it's talent, looks, or personality, and the key is to be yourself, and not what others want you to be. You'll be a total lie to yourself.