I have mixed feelings about this movie. On the one hand, I love to see the underdog win, especially as she is portrayed in this movie. On the other, the movie rushes to a close that leaves many loose ends, and ultimately makes some of the action seem a bit immoral.
Grace (Ricki Lake) is the overweight daughter of widowed Al (John Karlen). As the movie opens, Al is marrying Wanda (Betty Buckley), a woman who seems to delight in talking about Grace's weight problem in euphemistic terms. Al seems oblivious to how hurtful his new wife is to his daughter. Grace works as a make up artist for a funeral home, an irony which is not lost on her. On her commute to and from work every day, she sees a handsome subway conductor (Craig Sheffer), whom she pines after. In spite of all the unpleasantry in her life, and a best friend, Keri (Nada Despotovich), who is doom and gloom personified, Grace has a surprising upbeat attitude about life. As the holidays approach, she decides it's time to make some positive changes in her life, looking into becoming a cosmetologist, and deciding it is time to meet the subway conductor that she dreams of. His name turns out to be Rob, and the audience knows before Grace does that he is unhappily engaged to a rather pushy woman named Olivia (Cynthia Dale). While Olivia is out of town, Grace puts her plan to meet Rob into action, with hilarious, touching, and ultimately humiliating results. Can Grace pick up the pieces and go on with her life? Can Rob actually marry Olivia? Or will fate throw them together after all?
The biggest problem I have with this movie is that it completely ignores the issue that Grace is attempting to snare a man that is already taken. Granted, Grace doesn't know this at first, but when she finds out, she doesn't seem to care. Her attitude is that she will enjoy her time with him, and not worry about tomorrow, thus when tomorrow comes crashing in in the form of a very angry Olivia, I was more inclined to say "I told you so" to Grace than to comfort her. Likewise, I needed to see more of Rob working himself up to getting out of his relationship with Olivia. He just suddenly changes his mind, and shows up at the end of the movie asking to be with Grace, which is hard to swallow, even though the audiences wants to see them together. Finally, I can't imagine why Grace values Keri's friendship. Keri forces her to choose between friends, and then betrays Grace. Odd behavior from someone who is supposed to be your most trusted confidant. All of it added up to a somewhat unbelievable plot, which could have been fixed with a minimal amount of effort. Things might have worked better if Grace hadn't discovered Rob was engaged until she actually met his fiancé. And it definitely would have worked better if we had seen a scene where Rob finally tells Olivia that he wants nothing to do with her anymore, before going to tell Grace he wants to be with her, and really having to convince her to take him.
The acting is a mixed bag. Lake does a nice job with Grace, although this is a similar character to Tracy in Hairspray. She contrasts Grace's sunny optimism very nicely with the difficulties she has with her family. Karlen and Buckley struggle to rise above bad material, but don't quite get there. Sheffer merely comes off as confused and unsure, while both Despotovich and Dale bristle with believable malice.
I very much enjoy seeing the underdog have her day, and this is an underdog you can't help liking. But there is much that needs fixing in this movie, and the fixes are so easy that you wonder why somebody didn't catch them in the first place. So, enjoy the movie. Celebrate the triumph of this underdog, just ignore the lack of depth to the story.
Grace (Ricki Lake) is the overweight daughter of widowed Al (John Karlen). As the movie opens, Al is marrying Wanda (Betty Buckley), a woman who seems to delight in talking about Grace's weight problem in euphemistic terms. Al seems oblivious to how hurtful his new wife is to his daughter. Grace works as a make up artist for a funeral home, an irony which is not lost on her. On her commute to and from work every day, she sees a handsome subway conductor (Craig Sheffer), whom she pines after. In spite of all the unpleasantry in her life, and a best friend, Keri (Nada Despotovich), who is doom and gloom personified, Grace has a surprising upbeat attitude about life. As the holidays approach, she decides it's time to make some positive changes in her life, looking into becoming a cosmetologist, and deciding it is time to meet the subway conductor that she dreams of. His name turns out to be Rob, and the audience knows before Grace does that he is unhappily engaged to a rather pushy woman named Olivia (Cynthia Dale). While Olivia is out of town, Grace puts her plan to meet Rob into action, with hilarious, touching, and ultimately humiliating results. Can Grace pick up the pieces and go on with her life? Can Rob actually marry Olivia? Or will fate throw them together after all?
The biggest problem I have with this movie is that it completely ignores the issue that Grace is attempting to snare a man that is already taken. Granted, Grace doesn't know this at first, but when she finds out, she doesn't seem to care. Her attitude is that she will enjoy her time with him, and not worry about tomorrow, thus when tomorrow comes crashing in in the form of a very angry Olivia, I was more inclined to say "I told you so" to Grace than to comfort her. Likewise, I needed to see more of Rob working himself up to getting out of his relationship with Olivia. He just suddenly changes his mind, and shows up at the end of the movie asking to be with Grace, which is hard to swallow, even though the audiences wants to see them together. Finally, I can't imagine why Grace values Keri's friendship. Keri forces her to choose between friends, and then betrays Grace. Odd behavior from someone who is supposed to be your most trusted confidant. All of it added up to a somewhat unbelievable plot, which could have been fixed with a minimal amount of effort. Things might have worked better if Grace hadn't discovered Rob was engaged until she actually met his fiancé. And it definitely would have worked better if we had seen a scene where Rob finally tells Olivia that he wants nothing to do with her anymore, before going to tell Grace he wants to be with her, and really having to convince her to take him.
The acting is a mixed bag. Lake does a nice job with Grace, although this is a similar character to Tracy in Hairspray. She contrasts Grace's sunny optimism very nicely with the difficulties she has with her family. Karlen and Buckley struggle to rise above bad material, but don't quite get there. Sheffer merely comes off as confused and unsure, while both Despotovich and Dale bristle with believable malice.
I very much enjoy seeing the underdog have her day, and this is an underdog you can't help liking. But there is much that needs fixing in this movie, and the fixes are so easy that you wonder why somebody didn't catch them in the first place. So, enjoy the movie. Celebrate the triumph of this underdog, just ignore the lack of depth to the story.