★★☆☆☆
AMY Schumer follows up Trainwreck and Snatched for this misguided and disappointingly laugh-light endeavour that is supposed to be about the ugliness of judging by appearances but ironically ends up perpetuating what it’s trying to tear down.
Schumer plays Renee Bennett, an insecure woman who longs to move out of the basement office for the online version of high-end New York cosmetics giant Lily LeClaire and into the swanky head office. But because she’s far from having the stick-thin model look that her desired receptionist’s job dictates, she feels like she’ll never achieve her dream.
But after falling off an exercise bike and banging her head at the gym, she mysteriously wakes up to believe that she now does look the “undeniably pretty” way she’s always wanted. To everyone else she is unchanged.
She ventures out into the world with a newfound sense of body confidence. This leads to her being taken on at the company by entitled heiress Avery (Michelle Williams), who is after her expertise of the everyday consumer, and to her starting a relationship with unsuspecting Ethan (Rory Scovel).
The premise comes with built-in warnings signs that it could go down the wrong path and, while not as hideous as some of its marketing suggests, it comes off as cheap and wrongheaded. The very idea of judging women purely by their appearance lives on with a plot that never really delivers on the potential for satire of body image and cosmetic consumerism.
Instead it fills that gap with formulaic gags and low-rate set-pieces as Renee becomes more and more of an irritating character to be around after her imagined transformation; abrasive, aggressive and a show-off, while everyone around her looks confused why she thinks she gorgeous or admiring her confidence in spite of her so-called non-prettiness.
The shallow finale seems to think it’s crowning a film about personal growth and the harmful nature of judging by appearances. But the essence of it still feels like being beautiful means it really is all about what you look like.
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