The movie Lovely and Amazing was unlike any movie I have seen. It was very unusual in the way the writers wrote the movie and how the audience was supposed to understand the movie. Like I said it was very unusual so I will do the best I can in summarizing the plot.
The movie focuses on a family of women. There is the mother, Jane, the older daughter, Michelle, the younger daughter, Elizabeth and Jane’s adopted African American daughter. Jane is very self conscious about getting older and the effects it is having on her body. She is a very wealthy woman who knows what she wants to change about her body and does so. She decides to have liposuction and while prepping for surgery she encounters her surgeon who she has a crush on, and he reaffirms her contemplating thoughts on having the surgery.
Michelle is married and has a daughter of her own. She does not work but she is artistic and tries to make little chairs and sell them to stores, but most of the time is unable to. When meeting somebody she used to go to high school with, the audience figures out that Michelle used to be popular in high school and was considered so beautiful. At home he and her husband have a strained relationship because he feels like she should work and he doesn’t want to sleep with her. She thinks that it is because she is getting older and she is not attractive anymore. Whenever she is not trying to sell her projects she sends the day watching cartoons with her daughter and eating cereal. This seems like Michelle’s escape from the world. Eventually Michelle does decide to start looking for a job and winds up at a photo shop where a 17 year-old boy starts to hit on her. She gets the job and starts a little affair with the boy. Michelle is then arrested for statutory rape but is freed after a night in jail.
Elizabeth is an aspiring actress who has great potential but has the lowest self esteem about herself than any of the other girls. She doesn’t think that she is good enough and her body is not up to par for the movie image. She is always asking her boyfriend if he thinks that she is sexy and beautiful and he never completely responds to her in a “yes”. This just adds to her negative body image against herself. He eventually breaks up with her because she is basically too needy and is always asking and caring about what the movie business says. She also auditions for a part with a famous actor but does not get it because she is not considered sexy enough. The actor then calls her and basically wants to take her out. They have sex together and afterwards she stands in front of him and asks him to point out everything good and bad about her body. He is completely honest and it seem like she is a little hurt by it but tries to play it off.
Annie is an 8 year-old African American adopted by Jane. Like every little girl that age she is a little overweight and trying to get out of her baby fat. At the beginning of the movie she likes to eat a lot and when she gets in trouble she likes to justify that it was “the good kind” of snacks. As the movie goes on she starts to feel unconfident about her weight and comments on how she is fat. She doesn’t really notice her skin color compared to her sisters except that it is different. She does exclaim that her mother was a “crack head”, but that is all you here about her background. As the movie continues, you do see the influence that her family does have on her and she then wants to be skinny and straighten her hair so that she looks like her family.
This movie came to an abrupt finish and I felt like I was left hanging. It was almost like the story was not quiet developed and the audience was only shown a little amount of the characters. This movie was similar to Mona Lisa Smile in that it did touch on different women and different issues with each of them. This movie shows that women really care about what men think and that society plays a big role in how women perceive themselves. This is portrayed by the actress who gets denied because she is not sexy, the mother who gets liposuction to be skinnier, the older daughter who feels like she is unattractive and the youngest girl who feels like she needs to be skinny and white to be normal.
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