Guest Movie Review: Fat Girl

Story:A note from Sue:

I can't believe that I'm finally writing my guest review after winning the Oscars booby prize last March. I love movies but the fact that people do this for a living and Judy does it for fun makes me suddenly speechless! A French family on holiday at a charmless seaside resort try to enjoy themselves, without much success. The father soon leaves to get back to work and we don't see much interaction with the mother so the 15 and 13 year old sisters shuffle around aimlessly between beach, pool and home. The older sister, testing her emerging sexual attractiveness, picks up a law student at a cafe, takes soulful walks and soon invites him into her bed. The younger girl, a porcine, smart and very direct person tags along on all of these activities, even enduring the bedroom tryst and whispered intimate conversations in the shared room.

Something happens that precipitates the mother to pack up the girls and head the Mercedes for home. We have been told that she doesn't like to drive and the trip gets more and more tense; Everyone is upset; The mother is pissed off and plays inappropriate loud music, the younger girl gets sick along the roadside, semi trucks weave in and out of the darkness. The conclusion is not predictable and yet is weirdly full circle for the heroine, the fat girl. The director is Catherine Breillat and the girls are played by Roxane Mesquida and Anais Reboux.

Acting: Excellent.

Critters: None

Food: Pale commercial sandwiches at the rest stop. This isn't Provence. And what was that strange puttylike candy that the young girl liked so much?

Visual Art: Absolutely none

Soundtrack: Not important

Blatant Product Placement: None

Opening Titles: Don't remember

Theater audience: Well attended 4:30 Sunday. Mature couples and singles

Quirky Meter: 8

Squirm Meter: 8 - I squirmed plenty; over the youthful fumbling sex, the various humiliations of the younger girl and high anxiety later on.

Wide Eyed Surprise scale: 10 (Sue added this one).

Oscar Worthy: Yes

Nit Picking: I thought it was a comedy!

Big Screen or Rental: Rental would be fine, but you really don't want to wait that long because someone might tell you the ending first.

Length: 1 hr. 33 min.

LOBO HOWLS (actually Sue's Shouts): 7