The Problem With “I Feel Pretty” Is That the Entire Movie Is Based on One Joke

The humor in I Feel Pretty is mostly built on the same premise: We know and the other characters know that nothing about Renee has changed, but she doesn’t.

In I Feel Pretty, Renee (Amy Schumer) has always wondered what it would feel like to be "undeniably pretty."

Then, one day at spin class, she suffers a whack on the head. After that, whenever she looks in a mirror, she sees someone with conventional, supermodel good looks. With the same outward appearance but armed with newfound confidence, Renee's life instantly improves. She applies for a promotion and meets a love interest (Rory Scovel). Life as a beautiful person, it turns out, is just as easy as she always thought it would be.


The humor in I Feel Pretty is mostly built on the same premise: We know and the other characters know that nothing about Renee has changed, but she doesn’t. Most of the movie is just different versions of the same joke: confidence that borders on bombast. Renee casually drops lines like “yes, modeling is an option for me” at work, at the dry cleaner, at the bar.

Schumer's tireless comic energy gets as much as it possibly can out of the single note, but by the end, it begins to wear out.

Critic's rating: 2/4 stars

I Feel Pretty is rated PG-13 and now playing at Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, City Center, Clackamas, Division, Eastport, Lloyd, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, Tigard, Vancouver.

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