To Be Fat Like Me (2007 TV Movie) User Reviews

Better than expected - worth seeing ...

[Vic_max · 7/10 · 9 January 2007]

I didn't expect to like this movie - it seemed like the topic was too easily made into a simplistic 'hurt-emotion' and 'stand-up for yourself' type movie. After all, it was on the Lifetime channel and that is an often-used theme. However, the movie was much better than that and this surprised me.

Basically, the story is about an attractive, popular high-school girl that undertakes a project to document what it's like to be fat. Of course, it's easy to predict the basics of the story, but there's more to the movie than just the basic plot element.

The real value of this movie is that it doesn't try to be too preachy and shame everybody about having a reaction to 'fatness'. Instead, it explores many different angles and leaves you thinking about the many complex issues involved.

The lead character is intelligent and grounded, so it's easy to become interested in her character and follow her as she is confronted with many different situations involving weight. These situations don't just involve her and various high-school cliques, but also her weight-recovering mother and chubby brother.

The movie even acknowledges issues that relate to her judgments being affected by the fact that she can step out of the 'fat-suit' life at the end of the day. Because it's able to visit many such angles, the movie keeps a brisk pace and something is happening all the time.

While the movie does have its flaws, it remains interesting. Sometimes there are no easy answers, but there's lots to think about. If you want to watch a movie that will leave you with a few interesting, self-reflecting ideas to ponder, this movie is a good choice.

Average; Could've Been Better

[vip-danii · 7/10 · 10 November 2014]

The idea was brilliant. A pretty/skinny teen wears a fat-suit for a social project. I thought it was going to be interesting. It was... but nowhere near as interesting as I'd imagined. It was poorly done and underdeveloped.

Honestly, they could've done so much more with this premise.

The climax (where she takes the mask off at the party) was just half-a**ed. Weak, very weak.

And the cherry on top of the cake: she gets back with the jock, who tells her to her face that he wouldn't go out with her if she were fat, and whose best friends strategy is to blow off any girl if her mother is overweight (because, supposedly, a girl with a fat mother will be just as fat in 10 years).

It would've been more satisfying if she ended up with the geeky boy (Ramona's friend); he seemed much nicer.

By the way, they could've cast someone more suitable to play the lead. The girl didn't quite have the looks to pass for the queen bee.

And I have to say... some of the scenes were MAJORLY exaggerated, for example:

1. I have never seen people on public transport stare at overweight people with disgust.

2. I have never seen anyone at school moo at fat kids, especially when a teacher is present.

3. I don't think ANY shop assistant would ever treat a customer that way.

Well, anyway... the movie is O.K. Entertaining enough. But leaves a lot to be desired. Like I said, they could've done so much more with it.

A silly, boring, poor attempt at an after school special

[Robert_duder · 5/10 · 18 March 2009]

I read some very adamant and strong reviews for this film that all said the same thing and I completely agree. This was marketed as a film for teen girls to feel good about themselves and not obsess over weight but then you watch the film and it's actually directed at skinny people and how they shouldn't make fun of fat people because they have feelings too. How pathetic. It almost made me sick to watch the movie. The girl in the film who is larger is made to look like a loser with real feelings so she should be treated gently. How about not making her a loser in the first place? The film was decently acted but certainly nothing outstanding and the script is downright depressing and written with the maturity and intelligence of an eight year old. The best I can say is that the prosthetics for the main character were well done, better than she should have been able to pull off. The story is incredibly predictable, depressing, and never really comes full circle to make you feel good about what is supposed to be essentially a feel good film. I don't recommend this to anyone...but especially teenagers or anyone looking for some kind of moral message.

Lovely Kaley Cuoco plays lovely Alyson, the picture perfect, pretty athlete who has everything going for and apparently is smart too. I actually find her character boring and vapid and I actually think it's not her fault. I think the character was written poorly and the writing overall gives an actor nothing to work with. Caroline Rhea is almost decent as Cuoco's mother who has had past issues with medical problems based on weight. She's struggling with her relationship with her daughter and it is almost the one redeemable quality about the film and the one almost interesting story. Melissa Halstrom plays the larger girl that Cuoco "befriends." On top of having a weight problem Halstrom is written to look like a loser. She has no friends save for one guy who is clearly written as a nerd, geek whatever you want to call them. Halstrom's character doesn't even try to be a likable character. For her first film I suppose she does an alright job but I don't think it helps her case. Brandon Olds is really the only other redeemable character and performance in the film. His character is far more apathetic and he actually gives a good performance.

I think I blame the poor quality of this film on the film makers, in particular the director and writer and there really is no excuse for director Douglas Barr who has been in showbiz for decades and has directed many, many TV Specials and shows although I don't know the quality of any of them. Same really goes for M.A. Lovretta who penned the script. She's been writing Television, although not great Television for the better part of the last ten years and coming from a woman writer I would have expected more respect and emotion to a story like this. It's not the worst film I've seen TV or otherwise but I don't suggest it if you think you're going to get a sweet cute little TV money. It's preachy in all the wrong ways and overall boring. 5/10

Interesting story about a cute athlete investigating the heavier side of life.

[TxMike · 4 February 2009]

My current favorite TV series is "The Big Bang Theory", and one of the characters is the waitress Penny, played by Kaley Cuoco. So, when I saw that she has the lead in this TV movie, I had to watch.

Here she is high school senior Alyson (actually 20 or 21 during filming) who has family issues that may make it difficult for her to go to college. Fortunately she is also a very pretty and popular girl, and a star athlete, so she hopes to get a full ride scholarship. As the season winds down and colleges are evaluating scholarship offers, she suffers a fracture in her leg, and will have to remain inactive for 8 weeks, effectively killing her hopes for an athletic scholarship.

However there is a nationwide competition of a different sort and if she can win it, she will have the funds for college. She has a theory that fat people are miserable from their own doing, and that if they would be happy and friendly they would be accepted socially like anyone else. She decides that she will prove or disprove that theory, with the help of two friends.

She enrolls in summer school at a different school where no one knows her and, dressed in a fat suit and with a micro camera in her eyeglasses, she plunges in.

As we might imagine not everything goes as she hopes it will. She finds out that there really are lots of cruel people who not only look down on overweight people but also make fun of them to their faces.

Overall it is an interesting movie. At the end Cuoco delivers a short "public service" type of announcement to us, the audience, about overweight people. The movie mainly walks the fine line without being overly harsh on either segment of the population. People need to be tolerant and accepting of those who are different, but people also need to take care of their health.

Thin girl dons fat suit to find out what it is like to be fat

[ben_m_jones · 7/10 · 3 January 2009]

I married a fat woman (over 300 pounds), being only 145 pounds myself at the time, adopted her three children, and had three more by her; all of them very good looking but some struggling somewhat with weight. She was a wonderful woman, who died from complications to stomach stapling surgery, after we'd been married almost 24 years. She had many physical problems in her last years: fibromyalgia, diabetes, etc. and had the surgery only as a last resort because she'd gotten to the point where we took her places in a wheelchair and she slept in an electric recliner. I never noticed her enduring any particular slurs in public on account of her weight (I am kind of a space case anyway) but she did get anonymous notes from time to time from people who were trying to tell her how she ought to take care of herself.

Anyway, I found the movie very interesting and honest. Even the fact that the Aly character could be mean to her mother while trying to be sensitive to Ramona seemed real to me because kids and parents do lock horns at times in ways that are truly baffling.

I like it to be honest

[shakee5 · 7/10 · 22 December 2014]

To tell the truth I would actually recommend this movie to people, It might stereotype fat people or high school (whichever one you choose) and it may not be the total truth but it's part of what happens to fat people ( chubby people if you prefer) even skinny (slim people if you favour) This Is just another one of those movies you can sit down to watch with your friends, it's interesting and something different for different types of people. This story is about a young girl who gets out of her comfort zone to see what it's like to be a fat person for a documentary which is for money which she needs to be able to afford to go to a college due to the fact that most the money her family had saved was needed to cover her mothers hospital bills, and that leads to the way she starts despising her mother, she the falls deep into her "spying" without realising and meets friends and she soon doesn't know whether to tell them that for the past weeks she has been secretly videoing them for a project and risk loosing them or will she keep it to herself and forever be with guilt

Decent...

[stremelb · 3/10 · 19 July 2013]

I'll say that this film would be given more stars out of 10 if the message delivered had been actually fat-positive. Indeed, when I first saw it, about 5 1/2 years ago, I was impressed that it even made it to television at all, given North America's fat-phobic stance. But now that I've learned a little more about oppression, and have opened my eyes to my own experience as a fat person within the larger culture, I have the advantage of seeing things for what they really are. The entire movie seems to target fat prejudice in mainstream culture, but the messages throughout are anything but: fat people can only be losers. Only 'losers' hang out with fat people because they can't get any 'real' friends. Every thing about this film suggests that, although the main character becomes more 'sympathetic' to the 'fat experience', it's still okay to be mad at people for being fat and the best we can do for fat people is feel sorry for them because of the mockery made of fatness in modern culture. At the end of the movie, any semblance of a positive message is all thrown in the can when the potential love interest of the 'fat' girl admits that in reality it could never work between them if she was actually fat because he enjoys sports (which, effectively, suggests that fat people cannot and do not enjoy physical activity, further perpetrating the stereotype). As one of the most accepted forms of bigotry, fat prejudice definitely benefits from exposure and from being challenged. I agree with what's being said by other reviewers here. I would not let my daughter watch this, if I could help it. Not if I wanted her to have a more holistic outlook of the various forms people come in, and not if I wanted her to have a healthy body image, whatever her size happened to be. I just hope that in the future, films made like this one carry it all the way to the end without falling back on tired stereotypes.

Mom still did not change her ways.

[ms_unappreciated · 6/10 · 24 June 2021]

I think the part that really annoyed me was that the mother told her not to worry about the brother. You literally sit here and let him eat whole pizzas by himself he's like 12 and very heavy for his age. He does kind of have low self-esteem and he is shy around girls and if he's 400 pounds by time he's 16, he'll never leave home. The fact that she ate herself into diabetes is why the daughter is so angry at her, which we strongly understand. I had to dig into her college fund to cover all her hospital bills. So for the mother is still to really not change her ways and still allowing her son to keep these bad eating habits, I really don't see their relationship getting any better.

I'm not Shallow...just selectively deep;(

[tiblu · 2/10 · 9 January 2007]

Right...well Ali (based on a "true" Story) is a bit of a Fat Phobic (just like almost in one in America who's never felt the pain of being fat)..thinking it all about your attitude..and when she loses her sports scholarship..she decides to enter a student film competition for the prize money for school.....and her idea is to prove being unhappy and fat is all out the fat person's negative attitude....if only people like her little brother(overweight) had a positive attitude their lives would be better..thats why she's popular (not because she's a pretty blonde jock)..the commercials leading up to this promised a true look/insight into one area of life where bigotry and prejudice are allowed to reign supreme... i "thought" finally people see something about the cost of our obsession with weight...how thou bashing of gay and others may be illegal...but fat bashing is More than OK....But the promise of the commercials was NEVER delivered...even although Ali don's the "Fat suit" for at least a month...at the end of it..she's still very hateful over her mom's past weight (its treated like a very dirty little secret)..never asking why people over eat...or even some the different causes people gain weight, her partner on the film has a hard attitude towards the world in general and never stops calling the one "fat" girl and meets and befriends.."her Fat friend"...after a month spent on this Ali changes only a little..after lying to everyone very little is said after ward...you keep waiting/hoping for her "a Ha! Moment" when finally the light turns on...but we all stay in the dark...along w/her...even at the end when her "boyfriend" admit being a jock if she were to quote "get fat"...he would dump her..because well he's a jock basically...she just shrugs smiles...but then again Jenny Craig was the sponsor...guess that should have told me something....at the end she more or less right and don't let the world decide who you are....or I'm not Shallow...just selectively deep;(

I expected so much more...

[Cheffie3 · 2/10 · 15 January 2007]

What I expected: a pretty jock who judges her mother harshly for being overweight, walks in a fat girls shoes, realizes the internal and external pain of being fat. What I got: a movie that goes in too many directions and ends up no where.

On the one hand she is angry with her mom because she had a heart attack (due to being overweight) and the hospital bills took all of her parents savings and left no money for her to go to college. I honestly don't think she would have cared about her mom being fat if there was still money for her to get an education. So her anger had more to do with what she couldn't get, than concern for her mother. On the other hand she has a fat younger brother whom she adores and protects, but doesn't understand why he lets himself get bullied, he tells her what choice does he have being so big, she says it's all in the attitude and how you let people treat you. To win money for school she enters a documentary contest and the subject is that she pretends to be fat, using it as a sociology experiment to see if she would be treated any differently. Well no big surprise that despite being nice to people she gets treated like crap and then befriends a fat girl and a self proclaimed "loser". In the end she still doesn't understand WHY people overeat, or the emotional pain of actually being fat and overeating and she still continues to judge fat people harshly for eating bad foods. So what did she learn about being fat? IMO nothing. A few other side lines, her loser friends, a guy she likes who jokes about a girls mom passing the fat test, i.e. if the mom is fat, dump the girl because she will look just like her mother soon. A father who was passive and it seemed like he wanted to say something important but never does, her not being smart, but being in the fat suit she starts to study and does better in summer school than ever before, the emphasis jocks place on looks and being in good physical condition, but the poor guy gets a headache when she tries to explain what she's going through, that it's better to exist on chemical shakes and veggies, than a balanced diet, etc, etc. I was waiting and hoping for her and her mom to have a real heart to heart and for her to really "get it" but they just sum up their bad relationship in a two minute chat that barely scratches the surface. This could have been SO much more!

I wrote this review for my NAAFA group

[PrincessN1984-2 · 8/10 · 9 January 2007]

We've all heard the slurs, the slang, and the taunts coming from "anti-fat" people, or even little kids. Words like "porker", "fat ass", "tubby" and "lard ass" sting to the bone. Then there are the little noises that emerge from people when we fat people are around, the "boom, boom, boom" when you walk by them, or even the stares and giggles. No matter how much we don't want it to effect us, it always will. Fat is one of the last "acceptable" forms of discrimination. We have seen adults on talk shows delve into the situation, such as Tyra Banks. We have also seen articles, by Leslie Lampert, but this movie, To Be Fat Like Me, looked into a teenager's perspective.

To Be Fat Like Me stars Kaley Cuoco and Caroline Rhea (who has been known to struggle with weight herself). Kaley's character, Ali (based on an actual person), is a pretty, popular, "jock", who needs a scholarship to be able to go to college, due to her mother getting ill six years earlier. Her mother, played by Caroline Rhea, was fat, and when diagnosed with diabetes, did nothing to improve her eating, and ended up in the hospital. Her medical bills wiped out the college fund, so Ali has a huge resentment that she must work double shifts and rely on a softball scholarship to be able to go to "State".

During the game in which a college scout comes to see her, Ali's leg is injured, while sliding to a base. Her scholarship is blown, or so it seems. An opportunity to make a documentary to win a scholarship is presented to her, and while watching her brother get bullied because of his weight, she decides that she will go undercover as a fat girl to prove that weight has nothing to do with popularity. Her neighbor is a makeup artist and agrees to help her with her fat suit, which she hides from her family.

Ali goes to summer school, at a different school as not to be recognized, and is quickly greeted by "moos" and "booms" as she walks to her seat. She befriends another fat girl, and her friend a "geek", and a friendship blossoms, all the while, she hides that she is doing the documentary and that she is really a thin, popular, pretty girl.

Ali learns that being fat is not easy, and has everything to do with popularity in high school. She also learns that lying to her friends and family is not acceptable, and that the people she could truly rely on won't stand by her if she lies to them.

Although many people saw this as an "anti-fat" movie, I think it showed a good perspective as to what it's like to be fat in high school. I could feel all of the negative feelings I felt in high school coming back as I watched. This movie really touched on what us fat people feel when we look in the mirror, what our diminished self esteem can be like when people continually taunt us, and what its like to shop in a store where we don't get the service we deserve because of our weight.

no no no

[justakid · 1/10 · 15 August 2008]

Okay, so the film is based on a true life documentary right? What's the point in that? You'd probably get much more entertainment from that rather than this film. The insults were just cringe worthy and let's face it, it isn't just a fat person who would get insulted in an American high school. You could be whether you were a size 0 or a size 20. People get bullied ruined for all kinds of reasons. And to make it even more insulting, they use a fat suit! It's just ridiculous. I don't think using a thin blonde girl to 'reveal' the typical ordeals an over weight teenager would have to face would be the way to do it. Seriously just watch "My teenage of daughter is obese" on an episode of Jerry springer or something, you'd be bound to get more laughs!

Pretty good...I expected better though.

[hs407 · 10 January 2007]

This movie had my interest from the first time I saw the commercial for it. I thought it had a few good actresses I was familiar with as well as some people I had never heard of. A good mix. And that remained true. The characters all intermingled well. The story held my interest, so it is a good movie to see. I just thought it would be better and I don't really know in what way. But it is worth watching. Alert, the following is a spoiler.........I was a little disappointed with the ending. Aly asks her boyfriend if he would stay with her if she were really to balloon up and he says no. While that may be honest, it's sad...mostly because it's not like he had not already known her. Maybe if the were strangers he would not be attracted to her, but the whole point of the experiment was to change her size, not herself. I guess he failed the experiment. However, she didn't see it like that and stayed with him. I kinda thought she was being a hypocrite doing this experiment, then staying with a guy who in my eyes failed the test.

This movie is sadly disappointing

[DaiyneCaitrin · 1/10 · 8 January 2007]

Tonight I watched the premiere of "To Be Fat Like Me" in hopes that someone had finally gotten it right. With the idea that someone had at last made a film to empower the larger women of the world, I happily set my night aside in preparation of being touched by a film that would show the world how I feel. How disappointed I was when I learned what the movie was really about. This wasn't a movie for fat women at all, contrary to the commercials that were run for weeks before the premiere of this pathetic lesson in moral fiber for skinny women the world over. I had such hopes that someone had come to the slow conclusion that we aren't fat because we can't stop eating. At least, I'm not. I'm fat for many reasons. The first being, I don't believe that skinny is pretty. The second, and most important, is that I would rather live my life as happy and wonderful and comfortable with myself as I am and die at 50 than live until 108 always fighting to be someone I'm not. Never before in this world has there been such an obsession with fat. Never have our body standards been so small that I at 230lbs (and 5'6") could not go into any store and find clothes. Five years ago, I could walk into any store I passed by and buy jeans. Now I walk into every store I pass by simply to ask them what the biggest size of jeans they carry is. And the ever ecstatic response? "Oh, don't you worry ma'am! We have very big sizes here. We go all the way up to a 14! We definitely have clothes for you!" And I say in response, "Perhaps you haven't noticed, but I'm an 18." The idea that we are so morally inculpable that we allow the magazines and television shows and retail stores to govern our size is absolutely beyond me. I am my own woman. I am big, and I am beautiful. I am not unhealthy. There is a very big difference between big and unhealthy. I have known so many skinny women in my life that were absolutely revolting in a bikini for one simple fact. They may be a size two, but they have cellulite. We think that skinny equals pretty. But, let me tell you. It's your soul, your smile, and your eyes that make you beautiful. And this movie will never ever be a good movie to me. The moral of this film is that you skinny people should understand our fat plight and not make fun of us, but try your best to sympathize and gently push us to our thin potential. Well, that's a crock. I promise you that, no matter how sweet and gentle, the first person that befriends me to attempt to save me from my food will have a very rude awakening.

Bad high school drama movie but the message still got through

[SusieSalmonLikeTheFish · 5/10 · 21 December 2014]

To Be Fat Like Me is one of those overly dramatic 21st century high school movies. Right into the first ten minutes it already doesn't stand up to its story and the actors chosen make it very hard to take seriously. And as with most of these movies, somehow it manages to fit its forced environmentalism propaganda in, despite it having nothing to do with the plot (these students make an anti-pollution movie that is shown briefly in the beginning). I can tell you right now from very recent experience, high school is nothing like it's shown in this movie.

Anyway, the main character is named Alyson; she's a prissy, stuck-up, narcissistic ditz who thinks being pretty and good at sports will get her through life, so she's spending all her time playing softball for a sports scholarship and meanwhile looking down on her "overweight" family in shame and disgust (they're not even that fat!). She never considers that in this world you should expect the worst, not the best, and so she is totally shocked when an accident occurs that makes her unable to play sports (THE HORROR!) and she loses her scholarship. Since her grades are terrible because she never focused on anything but sports and socializing, she has to go to summer school.

Alyson decides to enter a documentary contest and teams up with two closet-geek friends to start a project called "Fat Like Me", where Alyson dresses up in a fat suit and goes to school as an overweight girl, using hidden cameras to record her experiences. The problem is, she makes friends with a misfit emo-type boy named George and his best friend Ramona, an overweight girl. They have no idea that in reality Alyson is a snobby popular girl, and Alyson finds herself getting very attached to them without realizing the harm she's causing.

Fat Like Me has a serious issue with its cast, mainly Alyson's family. Her mother and brother are supposedly obese but neither of them are, they're a little overweight but not the way the story goes on! The movie ends way too abruptly and never explains whether or not Alyson won the documentary contest, whether or not she fixes her relationship with Ramona and what her family thinks of the documentary once it's finished. I think the film company must have some promotional agreement with an electronics corporation or something; every kid in this movie has a computer! The kids where I'm from are mostly from blue-collar coal mining and woodworking families, they have to go to the local library for computer access. And it's highly unrealistic that the Jamie character just had "rich divorced parents to buy her high-tech spy cameras hidden in glasses and purses". The soundtrack was this trashy, horrible pop music and the lines were so fake! Nobody talks that way unless they're from Silicon Valley or something! This movie still manages to get its point across, but it is obviously written by adults with no input from kids today who are actually living the reality of being overweight in high school. Hopefully a better movie with more depth will come out someday to address the situation.

selfishness

[nozdrev1 · 5/10 · 27 December 2007]

well, my father was overweight and died of a heart attack while he was still young.

It was his choice, and he did it his way certainly. But what about his children? You may be pleased to have a child and die at 50, but I am not so sure that your child will have feel the same way.

so, fat is a feminist issue, but it is also a medical one; i know as i am a doctor.

the film does give the male a pass. After showing himself so completely shallow, and that I mean completely, he is given a pass by the heroine. I wonder what she has learned if she can tolerate such behavior. Would she have tolerated racism?

Very good movie that addresses a very real problem.

[disciple_of_christ_jesus · 10/10 · 8 January 2007]

Let's start off with the technical stuff.

The acting is great with very believable characters (especially Ramona). Very developed storyline with well-developed characters also. Great conflict with smaller conflicts in between.

Now for the juicy, meaty, chunky part.

The issue of obesity is a very real problem. However, the problems are not just health-wise, but also a sociological and psychosocial problem. I don't want to spoil anymore for anyone, so I shall just say this: the movie addresses the latter two problems effectively. I myself am overweight, but not to the same extent as one of the characters is. Personality-wise, I'm a likable person, but just like the heavyset characters of the movie, I, too, underwent similar persecution in high school, which was not too long ago.

All in all, whether you are fat, skinny, or in between the two, I suggest watching this movie. I'm quite sure that you, at the least, know someone or of someone who falls into the same category as Ramona.

A Big Fat Surprise

[alan_holloway_2 · 8/10 · 25 January 2012]

This really should not have been as good as ii is. The premise is pretty cool, but it was always going to be an upward struggle against being over sentimental and just plain sappy.

Well, "To Be Fat Like Me" manages to avoid most of the clichés with a deft sidestep or two. The main reason is the excellent casting, especially the lead, Kaley Cuoco, who will be the main reason for many people seeking this out. She is spot on for the part, and turns in a great performance, as does everyone around her.

We know that fat people can have a hard time, especially in school, and whilst there's no great revelations on this front, the film handles the issue with sensitivity and intelligence, coupled with a first class script. You may have come for the chick from Big bang Theory, but hopefully you will leave with a smile and a few more positive thoughts towards the larger members of our society.

Uncertainty?

[m-egan_lyn · 8/10 · 7 December 2013]

I expected this movie to be about body image, and how the world sees and treats 'fat' people, and how they are actually just like everyone else and the resolution would be that people realised that, and started treating overweight people like the human being that they are and that they should start embracing their bodies rather then hiding and believing what everyone else thinks. I was greatly disappointed when the message of the film was nothing of the sort. The movie talks a lot about how weight can greatly effect someones health, leading to diabetes and heart attacks, etc. Ally's mum had suffered from a heart attack because of her weight, and Ally was angry because her hospital bills took away Ally's college fund. Ally believed that her mum made herself sick, because she was constantly mood eating and Ally never let her forget it. Ally's little brother was constantly being bullied, and he thought it was because he overweight, Ally believed it was just because he was a 'smart-ass' to everyone and that 'fat' people all just have the wrong attitude, and if they were more positive (like Ally) more people would like them. When Ally gets the opportunity to enter a film competition where the winnings are $10000 (that she could use for college tuition), she decides to make a documentary about 'fat' people. So she dresses up in a fat suit, and goes to Summer School with hidden cameras and films the way she is treated. She makes friends with a dorky guy, and another 'fat' girl (Ramona). She talks to Ramona and gets her to open up to her, because Ramona thinks Ally understands what she has to go through everyday. She gets 'moo-ed' at and people say things like 'whoa look out fat girl coming through' and 'whale must've gotten lost on it's way back to the ocean.' Ally is hurt by this, because she still keeps her positive, up beat, friendly personality, and the way people treat her, proves her little brother right! Meanwhile, Ally is being a bitch to her mum, has the hottest and popular guy in school crushing her, and still has her rocking hot body. I got three messages out of this movie. 1) 'overweight' people only have themselves to blame, and they need to be more aware of their health problems. 2) In societies eyes, your weight determines who you are as a person 3) You have to be skinny, pretty and popular for the hot and popular guys to like you. Well, my response: 1) True. SOME (not all) overweight people can only blame themselves because they aren't taking care of their bodies, however, football players, swimmers & other star athletes, and perfectly normal healthy people are still considered overweight or 'fat' on the BMI scale, and that makes those people feel like sh*t which leads to perfectly healthy people becoming unhealthy through the way of eating disorders. 2) YOUR CHOICES AND YOUR ATTITUDE DETERMINE WHO YOU ARE AS A PERSON. YOU'RE WEIGHT, HEIGHT, RACE, GENDER, RELIGION ETC. DOES NOT!!! 3) Ugh. The movie was somewhat great! It had a good plot, and a good story line, great acting, but I hated that it ended with a negative message, and that message made me angry and want to shove my head through a brick wall. :) I did like the movie however, I just think it needed a more positive message. **triggering film**

To Be Fat Like Me

[amanda-n-josh · 8/10 · 9 October 2009]

In the film To Be Fat like Me, directed by Douglas Barr, high school student Alyson Schimdt (Kaley Cuoco) is injured while competing for a college scholarship in a girls' softball game. She is injured so badly she cannot play for the rest of the season. Instead, she enters into a film contest with her classmate Jamie. In this exposé she tries to find out what it is like to be "fat." She goes to summer school at a different school, wears a fat suit, and does not change her personality or behavior. She also goes into certain social settings like a party, the coffee shop, and a ladies clothing store. Each social outing shows a different side of what it is like to be "fat." After almost all is said and done, she must create an ending for the exposé so she may finally reveal it to everyone and enter it into the competition.

There are many messages in the film. Have you ever heard "don't judge a book by its cover"? Well that message is the main theme in this film. It says just because people look different from you that does not give you the right to judge them by what is on the outside. Another message in this film is stereotypes. Alyson (Kaley Cuoco) is a pretty, skinny, and athletic girl; but she is also a very good person. This movie shows that stereotypes are not always right in many cases. This movie also shows that stereotypes can be right. Some of the popular people make fun of her almost to the point of ridiculous. They could have been polite to her. Instead, they decided to live up to the stereotype. They "moo'ed" and called her names instead.

The one thing that caught my eye about this film was the fact that she could be skinny one second and "fat" the next. I liked that the exposé was looked at from both views without varying opinion. I was pretty much interested the whole time. The responses she got from people were ridiculous; but very authentic. It's true that people are treated different just by the way they look. That should never be the case. I only disliked one thing about this film: the ending could have been a little better. I won't ruin it though. She just should have revealed herself to a certain group of people in a different way. All in all this was a pretty satisfying movie. I would definitely watch it again.

A Big Fat Award For This Film

[ulrichevelyn · 10/10 · 8 January 2007]

This movie reminded me quite a lot about a book I own and read occasionally. The book was about a homecoming and pageant queen who was pretty, popular, and seemed to live the perfect life. That is until she got fat. In contrast, Kaley Cuoco portrays a pretty thin girl who documents life as a fat person by altering her appearance by wearing a fat suit, and not changing her true self. Life as an overweight individual opened up the true souls of her so called friends. They shunned her, harassed her, and treated her like low life scum. No one paid any attention to her personality, and the fat people at her school thought she was a walking joke. Yet, I really think that the film really makes us realize that who shouldn't judge one by looks, but the sad fact about that is true. We seem to make rude comments about to those who are physically different just because people have low self esteem and zero confidence that they take it on those who appear weaker then they. I'm more on the slender side with blond hair and bluish green eyes. However, I'm physically different that I will not post, but I had my share of experiences with the cruel comments, jokes, and harassment. However, I paid no attention to that because I lived my own life, and true people accepted for who I was, and not my appearance. We cannot help what we look like, unless you want to live a healthy lifestyle, you can make a few changes with diet and exercise. Physical deformities we can't really change, unless you go under dangerous surgeries. I think that 99% of women have image issues and they're unhappy with themselves because they think they can't do better. They fall into depression which can lead to dangerous eating disorders and cosmetic surgeries simply because of what society portrays. I believe that everyone has a "best" about them, whether it's talent, looks, or personality, and the key is to be yourself, and not what others want you to be. You'll be a total lie to yourself.

Fat is Beautiful...To Be Fat Like Me ***

[edwagreen · 8/10 · 31 May 2010]

One major flaw with this interesting film. What makes fat people eat incessantly? This is never discussed in the film.

Nonetheless, this is an interesting film dealing with how fat people are treated by society. They are outcasts and that is so true.

Kaley Cuoco, the star lead of the film, is a look-alike for Cameron Diaz.

"Gentleman's Agreement" had a reporter posing as a Jew to see what it's like being Jewish. "Black Like Me" had someone passing as a black person to experience anti-black sentiment. This is the underlying idea of this film as well.

The girl has an on-going dispute with her ex-heavy mother. She is angry that her mother's obesity led to illness that took money away from her possibly attending college. When she loses a sport scholarship do to an injured leg, she enters a contest to create a documentary. The subject is to be fat.

Depicting personal feelings of obese people is definitely the way to go. We need much more human understanding in this area as well.

decent

[mattkratz · 9/10 · 29 October 2012]

This movie came across as good. After an injury costs her a chance at an athletic scholarship to college (which she desperately needed), a girl decides to enter a contest to help raise the money and films a documentary on fat students high school;inspired by the book Black Like Me, she disguises herself as a fat girl and goes to summer school and experiences firsthand what it is like to be rejected as a severely overweight person. She thinks that a charming personality will help people look past it, but she is mistaken, as she learns that he previous popularity has spoiled her. Her family's weight problems inspired the project. Despite some flaws, the movie was good, and the girl matures throughout the movie. I recommend it.

*** out of ****