Film Review: Amy Schumer is Empowering in ‘I Feel Pretty’

CHICAGO – It is a neutered Amy Schumer who is portraying her latest character… a schlumpy woman who lacks the confidence to break out of her shell. It takes the most sitcomish of all actions, the whack on the head, to motivate her that she is one of the most beautiful woman in the world. This empowers the story of “I Feel Pretty.”

Rating: 3.0/5.0

This film is going to be a good girlfriend-out-at-the-movies night, because is has a great heart to what women have to put up with in society. From the average to the wealthiest to the most beautiful, women are still unfairly judged based on their outer carriage, and the film effectively exposes that message. However, as a comedy it relies too much on Ms. Schumer’s abilities to milk humor out of a character that isn’t confident until she is, and then confident again because?… I prefer the edgier Schumer from “Trainwreck” and “Snatched.” This is just a “lessons learned” film, and it has some slow stretches in the action as it takes us to school.

Renee (Schumer) is a IT geek for a cosmetics company, forced to work away from the glitzy headquarters in New York City. She is looking for love, as is her two best friends Vivian (Amy Bryant from “SNL”) and Jane (Busy Phillips). She has self esteem issues, until one day she hits her head on an exercise bike, and wakes up thinking she is one of the most beautiful women in the world.

This encourages Renee to apply for the front-of-desk receptionist job for her company, which she lands because of her now superior confidence. She also lands a dude named Ethan (Rory Scovel), who is entranced by her now free attitude. She also is noticed by Avery (Michelle Williams) – the squeaky-voiced CEO of the cosmetics company – and the founder Lily (Lauren Hutton), as they launch a new make up line. Hopefully she can hold onto her new super charged presence.

“I Feel Pretty” opened everywhere April 20th. Featuring Amy Schumer, Aidy Bryant, Busy Phillips, Emily Ratajkowski, Michelle Williams, Rory Scovel and Lauren Hutton Written and directed by Abby Cohn and Mark Silverstein. Rated “R”