A woman living in New York takes control of her life – one block at a time.
If you want to see another film about an almost 30-year-old who isn’t quite ready to grow up, has terrible relationships with other women and happens to be overweight and envious of the thin in shape people, then you are going to love this film! I wanted this to be something new and refreshing, but it turns out to be another narrative about insecure women who can’t seem to get their lives together, tear each other down and find more comfort in the gay best friend, a portrayal I’m tired of seeing, to be honest.
Brittany (Jillian Bell) is approaching 30, still partying and not taking her life seriously. When she goes to her doctor, pretending to be sick in order to get a prescription of Adderall, he informs her that she has health issues as a result of being overweight. She attempts to make small changes when she sees her neighbor Catherine “Money Bags Martha” (Michaela Watkins) running every day. Even though she is annoyed by Catherine’s lifestyle, it inspires her enough to attempt running in order to get in better shape. One block at a time Brittany gets up enough confidence to set a running goal of three miles. Since her “best friend” and roommate Gretchen (Alice Lee) encourages her partying habits, she shuts Brittany down when she notices she is choosing her health over hanging out.
Catherine, a serious runner, reaches out to Brittany to join her running club which she declines at first, not wanting to be pitied. When she finally does show up, she meets Seth (Micah Stock) and they become friends, meanwhile attacking every kind attempt Catherine makes to be her friend. When she finds out Catherine’s life is not as perfect as she thought, she is faced with the fact that everyone goes through problems and judging others is a poor excuse not to do better. When she is fired from her job for being consistently late, she encounters a perfect situation as a pet watcher for a rich family. There, she meets Jern (Utkarsh Ambudkar) who is hired to work at night but ends up moving into the home.
The more she loses weight and starts feeling better about herself, the more Gretchen seems to shut her down, belittling her by saying that she will always be a fat girl on the inside. Despite the negativity, she decides, along with Seth and Catherine, to run the next marathon. They train for almost a year until Brittany suffers an injury and can’t run. Depressed and caught for moving into the family’s home, she is out of a job, home and has a cast on her leg. She finally realizes that she needs to take a hard look at herself when she has to move back home to Philly with her sister. Her stepfather has a 40th birthday party and an obese woman shows up with her husband and Brittany attacks her for being overweight the same way she has always felt attacked. This is a good turning point for her to look at herself and her relationships with others, always shutting people out who want to help her and projecting her pain onto others.
So the film does end with her finally running this damn marathon and along the way opening up to those who have been there for her the whole time plus forgiving those who haven’t been so kind. I liked the overall message, however, I am tired of the whole concept of women being afraid to grow up and 30 being this magical age where you need to have your whole life figured out and perfect. I’m also tired of women being portrayed as always secretly attacking each other in films, being insecure and this whole story that you can’t actually be successful and have a great family life and friends. Why does Catherine turn out to be going through this terrible divorce and is an ex-drug addict? I actually know women who are middle-aged, happily married and love their lives with no hidden rehab stories, it does exist but there is a constant need to create women as flawed all the time. Anyways, don’t rush to see this one, it’s already been done.
In Theaters Friday, August 23rd
