As sweet, corny, and comforting as your grandma’s creamed corn, “Dumplin’” may not be a balanced meal of a movie, but it’s an enjoyably carb-y binge. Based on Julie Murphy’s YA novel, director Anne Fletcher’s gentle comedy is a Southern charmer, all set to the songs of Dolly Parton.
The “Dumplin’” of the title, teenaged Willowdean (Danielle Macdonald) loves Dolly, likes her coworker Bo (Luke Benward), and hates beauty pageants. As an act of rebellion against her beauty queen mother, Rosie (Jennifer Aniston), Will enters the Miss Teen Bluebonnet contest in her hometown of Clover City, Texas. Her plus-sized silhouette stands out among the super skinny, cookie cutter contestants, but she’s quickly joined by her loyal best friend Ellen (Odeya Rush), patriarchy-smashing Hannah (Bex Taylor-Klaus), and bubbly but bullied Millie (Maddie Baillio).
Will is still recovering from the death of her aunt Lucy (Hilliary Begley), but she finds solace in meeting her aunt’s friends, including Dolly-impersonating drag queens Lee (Harold Perrineau) and Candee Disch (Ginger Minj of “RuPaul’s Drag Race“). With their help, she gains confidence as she preps for the Miss Teen Bluebonnet pageant, all under her mother’s skeptical, perfectly lined eye.
Though Will’s crush on Bo is a minor subplot, “Dumplin'” is mainly focused on her connections with other women. Her friendships with Ellen, Hannah, and Millie are key, but the central relationship in the film is with her mother. “Dumplin’” captures the complicated relationship between mothers and their teenage daughters, so often fraught with expectations and frustrations, but clearly shot through with affection and real love here, thanks to Aniston and Macdonald. After breaking out in last year’s triumphant “Patti Cake$,” Macdonald shines in the lead again here, and she continues to impress, standing out even in a solid cast of young actresses and working alongside a veteran like Aniston.
Though she never appears on screen, Parton figures prominently throughout “Dumplin’.” In addition to classics like “9 to 5,” “Jolene” and “Here You Come Again,” Parton recorded six new tracks for the soundtrack including “Girl in the Movies.” But in addition to her music, her persona brings a message of strength and confidence; being comfortable in your own skin is the key theme of “Dumplin’.” There’s thankfully no makeover montage here, as you’d expect in a movie about a beauty pageant and especially one about an “unconventional” contestant. Instead, Will remains just as she is throughout the film – though she, of course, gets some glamorous pageant wear for the climax. There’s no big external change and no weight-loss push, and it’s such an important message for teenage girls that they rarely see on a screen that usually tells them that they aren’t enough.
Writer Kristin Hahn makes her narrative debut with this adaptation, distilling the 380 pages of the novel into 110 minutes of running time. Details get lost in translation, and it feels like we miss key moments in the story and in Will’s inner transformation. Director Fletcher got her start as a dancer and choreographer (and there’s a fun dance scene at the pageant, of course), but she’s made a career as a filmmaker out of female-centric films that have occasionally worked (“The Proposal“) and often haven’t (“The Guilt Trip,” “Hot Pursuit“). But she excels at making movies like “27 Dresses” and “Step Up” that might get critical hate but were the type of movies that their audience wouldn’t be able to resist on cable on a Saturday afternoon. This Netflix original skips the theatrical release and delivers the goods right to the couch where we want them.
“Dumplin'” will mean a lot to a lot of young women who struggle to see themselves in TV and movies, and this feel-good comedy reminds them that they’re beautiful just the way they are, no makeover or weight loss needed. But sequins, a slick of lipstick and a Dolly Parton soundtrack can’t hurt for bringing out that sense of confidence and joy in who you are. [B-]