Flak Magazine: Review of Lovely & Amazing, 7-26-02

Too fat, too skinny, too pretty, not pretty enough, not good enough, not loved enough …. There are so many different issues available to a film about body image that the central focus easily can become blurred — so many double standards, crazed comparisons and outrageous expectations that only stir up complications. Lovely & Amazing makes a valiant attempt at tackling all of this.

The Marks family is the film's blurry focus — a mother, her daughters and their neuroses. Their jobs, relationships and decisions are all based in insecurity. Catherine Keener and Emily Moritmer are excellent in their vulnerable roles as two of the sisters. They are so insecure and self-centered that the moment that something goes wrong, they take a look at themselves to try to find fault — a mentality they've gotten at least in part from their mother, played by Brenda Blethyn.

While these actresses bring three good characters to the screen, they're not the kind of characters that you want to watch for two hours. They are continually bothersome, but they don't seem to realize it. Often it feels as if their constant, innocuous grumblings are just a set-up for a legitimate complaint that never comes. Nothing is ever good enough, and that is at the core of their complexity — they can't see when they are being reasonable and when they are being ridiculous. Their decisions are rarely thought out beyond the immediate gratification that they will obtain, a series of short-term solutions that only deal with appearance and not with what is at the core of their troubles.

Predictably, the men in their lives don't make things any better. They aren't insensitive or dense, but they don't help the situation. It's a great representation of being on the receiving end of insecurity: They don't have solutions, so they sit in silence, knowing there's no good answer to "Does this make me look fat?" Seemingly every scene has a character uttering something about being good enough or pretty enough or skinny enough. Usually it's in the form of one of these questions for which the answers never matter — the question is just a verbal manifestation of low self-esteem. Validation never comes because these women will never believe it.

There's so much insecurity, in fact, that the film itself seems to suffer from it: Do you understand that this film is about insecure people? Does this reel make me look fat? It's as if writer/director Nicole Holofcener thinks this she had better cover everything lest she never get another green light, and so she stuffs infidelity, racism, parental neglect and other issues into an already crowded film. Furthermore, the rather serious subject matter is too often handled with light comedy, and it doesn't always work.

As a portrait of the sad fact that many Americans have become obsessed with what they see as imperfections of their bodies and personalities, Lovely & Amazing is accurate and excellent. As a film, it makes for difficult, almost repellent viewing. The fact that I hated watching this film and yet I can't stop thinking about it is a testament to its success in communicating the importance of these issues. Eating disorders, obesity and insecurity are rampant, and while the film posits that the only way to stop the insecurity is at the source, it never seems to reveal that source. It offers few alternatives and fewer solutions to a problem that is only getting bigger.

— Mark McConville (markwmcconville at hotmail dot com)