With its heart of gold and good intentions, “I Feel Pretty” is beautiful on the inside. Unfortunately, what is seen on the outside is often a hot mess – and in movie criticism, appearances do matter. This is the era of Tinder, after all. The Amy Schumer vehicle means well and intermittently shows audiences a good time, but it never fully buys into its own rather flimsy premise of a woman who suffers a concussion and wakes up believing that she is gorgeous.
READ MORE: ‘I Feel Pretty’ Trailer: Amy Schumer & Michelle Williams Learn Beauty Is Only Skin Deep
The comedian stars as Renee Bennett, an insecure New Yorker who does…something for makeup company Lily LeClaire that keeps her in a basement in Chinatown, toiling away over the beauty brand’s website while models, would-be models and former models populate the midtown HQ. When Renee suffers a head injury in a SoulCycle class (further convincing me to never go to another SoulCycle class, thankyouverymuch), she awakens in the pristine, posh locker room and sees herself in a totally new light.
She’s now beautiful in her own eyes, and she worries no one will recognize her after her transformation. Her newfound confidence makes her act like a totally different person – a person who is often kind of an asshole and tells everyone that she could be a model, even if nothing has changed about her appearance. Her old friends (an underutilized Busy Philipps and Aidy Bryant) aren’t sure what to think of her weird behavior, but her boldness lands her a new guy in Ethan (Rory Scovel) and a new job at Lily LeClaire’s main office after she attracts the attention of Avery LeClaire (Michelle Williams). Renee is confident, but how long can her magical head injury last? (to that end, doesn’t this sound like something that’s happened to Homer Simpson a bunch of times?)
The directorial debut of Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein, who’ve previously collaborated on some good scripts (“How to Be Single,” “Never Been Kissed” – don’t @ me) and some bad ones (“The Vow,” “He’s Just Not That Into You“), “I Feel Pretty” has some terrific, truly funny moments, but the overall effect is underbaked. And this movie is not at all warm cookie dough. Never fully leaning into its concept or providing the underlying support that makes it feel fully fleshed-out, “I Feel Pretty” reads like a loose idea discussed over drinks that you struggle to reconstruct the next morning.
But other simple details are strangely lacking, too. We never find out what Renee does for Lily LeClaire at the beginning of the film, other than some kind of job “on the internet” (is that not a job title?) and apparently one of the biggest beauty companies in the world doesn’t believe enough in digital to put her in their main office (sure). Her friends played by Philipps and Bryant are bare sketches of people, when their relationship with Renee should be the core of the film. While Scovel is perfectly charming in a low-key way, we get no insight into his character, other than the character relaying what his coworkers at CNN say about him. Overall, the character depth is shallow.
Even Schumer’s Renee isn’t as developed as she should be, but she does demonstrate a step up for the actress in terms of range. She’s not playing a version of herself as she’s done previously; instead, there’s more vulnerability and sweetness here, and Renee doesn’t quite have the edge of Schumer herself or her part in the far superior “Trainwreck.” Oddly, her best moments in “I Feel Pretty” aren’t even the funny ones – though there are plenty of those. Instead, she really shines in Renee’s sadness and imagined inadequacy. I laughed really hard at points in “I Feel Pretty,” but I also teared up a few times, and that’s a credit to the emotion in Schumer’s eyes.
While Schumer shows dramatic chops, by contrast, Williams is the film’s comedic hero. Normally known for her dramatic skill, the four-time Oscar nominee is hilarious here as the Avery LeClaire, the heiress to the cosmetics kingdom, whose high-pitched voice keeps her from commanding a room. The vocal performance is perfect, but Williams’ timing and delivery are on point as well. Her pronunciation of your Midwestern mom’s favorite department store gets one of the film’s bigger laughs, but every word that comes out of her mouth provokes giggles. It’s a great performance in itself, but it also works due to the actress’s more serious off-screen persona, and it’s a casting coup.
With Williams’ Avery and Renee ‘s stunning fellow SoulCycle attendee (Emily Ratajkowski), “I Feel Pretty” attempts to establish that everyone has something they’re insecure about, even the women who appear to have it all together. It also offers the notion that confidence is the sexiest personality trait there is, but it undercuts its own argument. We’re meant to laugh when Renee tells everyone she meets that she looks like a model, but it’s unclear whether we’re supposed to find humor in the idea of someone like her could possibly be considered beautiful enough to be a model or if it’s merely that anyone would actually say this out loud, regardless of appearance.
For all its faults – both in its construction and the execution of its themes – “I Feel Pretty” still manages to be fun in the moment. It’s sweet and silly with a scene-stealing performance from Williams, but it ultimately could learn from its own lessons. It’s not confident enough in its central premise, leaving the audience wanting something more. [C]