Brittany Runs a Marathon

I enjoyed much of Brittany Runs A Marathon. We see Brittany's lifestyle and she's come to terms with her not being happy being overweight. So she looks for the cheapest way to drop pounds, and that's where the running comes in. As she starts her new hobby, she makes new friends along the way, and unfortunately has a falling out with her roommate. She also takes on a house or dog sitting job, but I can't recall what happened to her theater job she has initially in the movie. The character of Brittany is a hard one to figure out. At first you think, oh poor her, I hope she does achieve her goal. But as time goes on, you see she's just as shallow and judgmental as the thin people she accused of being that towards her. And that's partly where the movie fails. We can't quite get emotionally invested in Brittany enough to root for her because she'll be nice one minute, but then turns around and is nasty the second. Unfortunately the movie really drops the ball in the last act. We sort of see her making up to a bunch of friends she hurt, then the movie does this 1 year jump to the following year's marathon(?!). After the marathon we see that her life has changed somewhat. But the problem is that we don't see the progression to that change. I mean, she does still have a bond with those friends because they cheer her on, but is she a nicer person, is she still nasty? Did she ever make up with her former roommate? It just felt a bit rushed to show her as a completely different person, even though there was no real progression towards that as of the previous scenes. Anyway, everyone in this movie is actually more likable than Brittany. Her FWB Jern is definitely a scene stealer, the actor playing him did a great job. A nice (rom?) com-ish film, even though the romance is kind of back-handed lol.

This film tells the story of a woman who decides to do something about her weight. However, it appears that her issues are more than just the weight. She goes through a journey of self discovery, and I think this is likely to resonate with a lot of people. It did resonate with me.

I was enjoying the movie completely all the way through the twists and turns and mood swings and self-pity and longing and loneliness and frustrations and efforts to improve efforts to become a better person stumbling falling getting back up falling again having self-restraint self-control self-discipline sense of humor insight and courage to stand alone up until she insulted a big fat obese woman at her brother-in-law's birthday party. That little part showed a psychopath that completely ruined the whole movie for me. Because all of my empathy towards her went out the window. I can understand going after someone that you know but if you don't know them it makes you look like a complete psychopath. It went downhill from there so about 75% of the movie is great but the last 25% ruined for me.

Summer at the movies has come to an end and I can feel it from the lack of films coming out this and next week. However, Brittany Runs a Marathon is something that I wanted to make sure to see for somewhat personal reasons. No, it's not because I want to lose weight to look and feel better, although sure that's something good to get to one day. I more so identified with the idea of doing something for yourself and improving yourself, and just having a more all around positive attitude. Its something that I've really been focusing on this year and I feel so much better. The film is an entertaining watch and hammers home a few good messages.

The film is about a 28 year old who after visiting the doctor realizes that she needs to start losing weight to avoid serious health problems. The idea of running at first is so daunting and crazy to her but once she gets into it she sees things change, including her friendship, her romantic life, and also what she learns about herself and about the willpower she never knew she possessed. This is the first time I'm seeing Jillian Bell in a lead role and shes absolutely great in this.

The film does a great job of balancing humor and the drama that comes with it. The film is a rather empowering tale of loving oneself. Its not just about the physical gains that come out of taking care of yourself but a lot of it comes from the mind and being in a place where you are truly happy. As mentioned earlier, this is something that is so true for me in this stage of my life where I am consistently looking to improve myself and I've been happier than I've been before.

Getting back to the film its a nice bit of a character study filled with training montages, awkward romances, breakups of close friendships, and a theme of change. Yes, we've heard of all this before in film but Brittany Runs a Marathon does it very well. I do feel like the film loses its way in writing a bit near the end but ultimately it means very well and does a job of entertaining its viewers.

7/10

I was really pleasantly surprised by this one. It was funny, but not really crass. There were a few cringey moments where the characters make terrible decisions or say things that are just painful to watch, but actually this was balanced by a lot of really adorable moments. I was afraid the movie might be too trivializing or too preachy, but it really did get down to the core of accepting help and that we all need people message. I actually ended up weeping at this one. I certainly did not see that coming! It had a lot more depth than I ever imagined it would. Highly recommend!