"Phat Girlz" (Fox Searchlight)
Just Not Phunny
Mo’Nique is a plus sized actress who knows her way around comedy; unfortunately her new movie “Phat Girlz” is not a phunny film. It is more intent on delivering its message of big is beautiful than in exploring the comic angles of this prejudice. The film does have its funny moments but they are too few and too far between.
Mo’Nique plays Jasmine Biltmore, a clerk at a major department store. Jasmine wants two things out of life – a wonderful man who will love her, and a line of her own dress designs. But Jasmine has one thing working against her and that is her size. She is a healthy woman who many consider fat. Jasmine encounters this prejudice at home and at work.
One day Jasmine wins a free trip to Palm Springs. She and her two friends, Stacy (Kendra C Johnson) and Mia (Joyful Drake), drive over and have plans for a great time. Mia is the skinny one in the bunch and she expects to be the center of attention. Things don’t work out that way because there is a medical convention in town and the doctors they meet from Nigeria like their women big. This leaves Mia out and Jasmine and Stacy in.
Dr Tunde (Jimmy Jean-Louis) falls hard for Jasmine, and his friend Akibo (Godfrey Danchimah) falls for Stacy. The two women are the center of their universe during the time they spend in Palm Springs. However when they go back to Los Angeles Jasmine’s self doubts come into play and she doesn’t think Tunde really cares for her.
All of this plays out predictably and without a lot of humor. The matter of big versus small sizes is a real problem and the movie skews too much to the dramatic. Eventually it boils down to the message that if you are a big woman you had better move to Nigeria if you want to find a man.
Mo’Nique is a good-looking woman and a good actress too. She knows how to create a convincing character, but the script eventually does her in. Johnson doesn’t make much of an impression as Stacy and Drake is a Jada Pinkett Smith lookalike as Mia.
The film is rated PG-13 for profanity and sexual innuendoes.
The trailer for this film painted it as a comedy but there are too many serious moments in the movie for it to have that definition. Audiences expecting one laugh after another are going to be sorely disappointed. And as a message movie, well the message is muddled. Only die hard Mo’Nique fans are going to appreciate this effort.
I scored “Phat Girlz” a heavy handed 4 out of 10.
