I FEEL PRETTY: Ambitious, But Never Quite Comes Together

I Feel Pretty is the latest addition to the wish-fulfillment genre, but this one feels more like a rehash of the things that came before it than its own film. Amy Schumer graces the big screen once again, and this time she’s working with writer/directors Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein, the duo behind 2016’s How To Be Single, and a whole host of other films, including Valentine’s Day and The Vow. Schumer’s is joined by Michelle Williams, who stars as Avery LeClare, and Emily Ratajkowski starring as Mallory.

Amy Schumer plays Renee, a woman who’s unsatisfied with pretty much every aspect of her life. She spends her days working out of a basement office, where she manages the website of cosmetics giant Lily LeClare (and all the while, wishes she could land a job in the company’s headquarters), and the rest of her time going to SoulCycle classes and hanging out at bars with her friends.

But when it comes down to it, she only wants one thing: to be beautiful. That desire leads to her wishing for that exact thing at a fountain. But to her disappointment, nothing happens, until she falls off a bike at a SoulCycle class (which is effectively a spin class with a motivational speaker), and suffers an injury to the head. When she wakes up, she’s a different person. Sort of.

She doesn’t actually change in any way, and that’s the premise of the film: What if you suddenly gained all of the confidence you wish you could have?

Her life begins to change, and soon she lands a job at the Lily LeClare headquarters, where she befriends Avery LeClare, the squeaky-voiced CEO who manages the place. With her newfound confidence, she quickly rises up the ranks of the company, and earns the respect of its key players.

The Themes of I Feel Pretty

A high-concept comedy like I Feel Pretty is only as good as two things: its jokes, and the themes it covers. I’ll start with the themes. The film has many which are potentially interesting. The most obvious one being that it’s possible to be confident in your own skin. For the most part, Renee manages to maintain that sense of confidence, but just like in real life, there are moments when it wanes, and it can be interesting to see how she pulls through (or if she will at all). It’s something that works fairly well.

There’s also a very unlikely friendship between Renee and Emily Ratajowski’s Mallory, a beautiful woman she meets at SoulCycle (‘this is my first one, too!’ she says to an astonished and slightly envious Renee.) Throughout the course of the film, it’s revealed that Mallory has just as many anxieties about herself as Renee.

Mallory’s big problem is that her boyfriend dumps her. In comparison to Renee’s anxieties (she’ll never get a job she loves, she’ll never be satisfied with her appearance), it just doesn’t seem like a big deal. Is wanting a romantic relationship a common desire? Yes, but I don’t think it’ll be added to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs any time soon.

I Feel Pretty also has things to say about the cosmetics industry. Among the beautiful architecture of the Lily LeClare headquarters, there’s a problem: the company is trying to get a new discount “Diffusion” range off the ground, but none of the people who work at the company understand what the average consumer wants. Renee is someone who can help with that. It’s a theme which is explored well up until a point, but ultimately Kohn and Silverstein reject it in favour of dull plot mechanics.

The Story Of I Feel Pretty

There are a few funny moments in the film. Most of those are to do with Renee and her new boyfriend, Ethan, played by Rory Scovel. The dynamic between the two is interesting; at first, he is intimidated by her confidence, but as the film progresses, he starts to find it endearing, and the two become very close.

But I Feel Pretty is nowhere near as funny as it should be. It has little to do with Amy Schumer’s skills as a comedian (who I think is often unfairly maligned), but the jokes she’s been given to work with. The weakest of these is a section at the end, in which she tries to make her way onto a catwalk by unsuccessfully kicking through a stage flat. The joke goes on for far too long.

The film also ignores its own logic. The speech at the end seems oddly off-kilter. It involves Renee giving an impassioned speech about the admiration she has for Lily LeClare, and embracing all of the things the character has rejected for the past ninety minutes. The entire scene feels like a Boots advertisement you’d find on TV in the middle of the day, and it left me feeling a little cheated.

I Feel Pretty feels very safe. It caters to mainstream tastes (which in theory is fine), but it often feels like it’s pandering to an imaginary audience. The pop-culture references all feel very middle-of-the-road. They’re the kind which would have been funny a decade ago, when social media was still something that felt new. But in a world where everyone and their mum has a Facebook account, it just feels tired, and it’s hard to relate to any of it.

It’s competently made, but nothing in the film feels particularly fresh. The cinematography is like something you’d find in a Lifetime channel film. There’s nothing inventive about it, and that goes for the set design and the soundtrack choices, too. It’s a film that seems as if it was engineered to do nothing more than pass the time. I couldn’t point to any part of it which feels unique.

I Feel Pretty: Conclusion

I Feel Pretty isn’t a terrible film. The entire cast is fun to watch, and Schumer and Scovel do have a certain amount of chemistry as a couple. It’s bright and breezy, but it’s nothing that hasn’t been done before. I think Kohn and Silverstein intended to make something far more ambitious than the end product, but it’s something that never translated onto the screen. Will it pass the time? Yes, but it won’t have any kind of lasting impact on its audience.

Have you seen I Feel Pretty? Did you enjoy it? Do you agree with my analysis of the film? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

I Feel Pretty was released in the U.S on April 20th, 2018. You can find international release dates here.