“Phat Girlz” is first-time feature writer/director Nnegest Likké’s cinematic buffet about big women living in a “fattist” society. While the topic will invigorate the plus-size population and is an overdue eye-opener for others, the movie is uneven and self-indulgent.
Comic Mo’Nique plays the full-figured Jazmin Biltmore, a department store drone who wants to design attractive clothes for plus-size women. Problem is, she can’t seem to make up her mind. While she champions the plump woman, she’s constantly dieting in hopes of finally wearing that Size 5 dress in her closet.
She and her pals – fellow large lady Stacey (Kendra C. Johnson) and skinny cousin Mia (Joyful Drake) – escape to a Palm Springs resort where a group of Nigerian doctors eye the big girls with love and lust. Tunde (Jimmy Jean-Louis) particularly admires Jazmin’s physique and fierceness, but as their relationship grows, so do her insecurities.
The film isn’t content to spell out the fat- equality message but sits on you and shouts it. When Likke isn’t high-fiving her “sexy, succulent” sisters, she has them harp about their size, fetishize food and put down skinny women. The director admits that she’s still coming to terms with her own issues, which is probably why Jazmin is a flawed, contradictory being.
This is the problem with “Phat Girlzs.” Likke spends so much time nurturing Jazmin’s neuroses that they become annoying, derail the comedy and almost undermine her character’s growth.
Jazmin demands respect, yet gives none to small or white women. She’s fixated on getting a man but rejects Tunde’s genuine admiration. It’s as if she based the first two-thirds on her own life and thus had too much material to choose from. And the conclusion – in which Jazmin achieves well-rounded happiness – has yet to happen for Likke, and thus comes off like an oversimplified fantasy.
The humor is similarly inconsistent, with the genuine, joyful laughs outnumbered by the bitter or mean-spirited ones.
“Phat Girlz” isn’t a bad movie, but it’s a badly made one.
** | “Phat Girlz”
PG-13 for sexual content and language|1 hour, 39 minutes|COMEDY|Directed by Nnegest Likké; starring Mo’Nique, Godfrey Danchimah, Joyful M’Chelle Drake, Kendra C. Johnson, Jimmy Jean-Louis|Playing at area theaters.
