I went in thinking this movie was going to have a message about body positivity and female friendship, but this was a little disappointing. Mistaken identity can be a fun trope in a romcom but I had a difficult time with this one. Instead of rooting for the lead female character, I ended up rooting for the female antagonist instead.
In the beginning, I found Sierra likable enough and I was eager to see what was going to happen next. She seemed comfortable in her skin. But as the story progressed, there were certain behavioral patterns in her character that left me quite horrified. For instance, the catfishing was pretty creepy. I don't understand how this could be considered romantic. Honestly, I really like stories that feature an online friendship that turns into romance (A Cinderella Story was a great example of the sub-genre) but the catfishing bit was too much to take. This would definitely not have been considered romantic had the gender roles been reversed. A guy doing the same things would definitely have been strictly persecuted, so how come no one objected to this during pre-production?
The cast did a nice job. I loved RJ Cyler as the best friend and Kristine Froseth was great as Veronica (she actually made me root for her). Noah Centineo is a dreamboat as usual (sensitive jock roles really suit him, I think). It was refreshing to see Shannon play the role of Sierra Burgess. She was great with the emotional scenes and I do feel this role wasn't able to do justice to her talent. She deserved better than a character like that.
