Since Dumplin' came out, I have been hearing many things from my friends about it. I had seen the trailer, but I wasn't 100% sure that I wanted to watch it. We've had a few similar movies come out this year, like Insatiable, revolving around a larger main character and many people had put them down because they went from fat to skinny instead of promoting body confidence. I thought that Dumplin' was going to be the same.
Yesterday, I took the dive while I waited for my gingerbread cookies to finish drying and I am so glad that I was proved wrong.
Willowdean, a plus-sized teenager, lives in Texas with her former beauty queen mother, Rosie, and is grieving the loss of her beloved Aunt Lucy. Pageant season is starting once again and Will has finally had enough and decided that she wants to teach her mother a lesson, so she signs up in protest. This then starts a catalyst of other girls joining, who don't fit the traditional pageant look.
The movie is based off the book by the same name and it's now in my to-be-read pile for the new year, so I'm not entirely sure how close the two are. However, even without reading the book, I really loved this movie.
Unlike Insatiable which focused on weight loss, this movie took a plus-sized girl and placed her in a beauty pageant allowing for the traditional look of a pageant girl to change. While there is still a lot of revenge involved in this movie, Will also learns a lot about herself and her mother which brings on a whole different kind of transformation.
There is also a lot of other things that happen in the movie that show Will grow as a character and learn more about herself which I love so dearly. It's also so amazing to see Drag Queens dressed as Dolly Parton and singing her songs, which are used throughout the movie.
Overall I really loved this movie. I loved Jennifer Anniston as Will's Mum, I thought she did an amazing job. I'm loving her in these older roles right now. The Drag Queens steal the show however!
I think this is an amazing movie. Netflix is really knocking it out of the park lately with their Original movies and I'm all for it. This is a perfect movie for teens and pre-teens maybe even a little younger with an adult present.
I don't know what it is, but I really love Hallmarky style movies. Despite a lot of the cliche and stereotypes that appear in them, they're really entertaining.
Last year, one of the biggest Christmas hits was A Christmas Prince, a movie about a Journalist named Amber who is sent to the country of Aldovia to get the hot scoop on the roguish (for lack of a better word) Prince Richard. She is mistaken as the new Governess and instead of saying who she really is, she plays the roll to get the scop and in the meantime grows closer to the Royal Family and falls in love. There is a little more to this story but I don't want to give it away just in case anyone here hasn't seen it.
The movie was a huge success; to the point that Netflix even had to comment on 53 different people's viewing of it.
To the 53 people who've watched A Christmas Prince every day for the past 18 days: Who hurt you?
To be fair, I can understand why. It's really a lovely story and while it's not going to be everyone's taste, it's a nice change compared to a lot of the shows that were trending on Netflix last year.
Now I wasn't one of those fifty-three people. In fact, I didn't watch the original movie until about two months ago when I was sick and needed something other than the True Crime documentaries that I normally write. But I did watch it and found it really charming and light-hearted. I then found out that a sequel was coming and decided to add it to my December watch list.
If you don't want to watch the trailer (and you should because I live for the designer Sahil) the basic plot of the movie is that Amber has returned to Aldovia a year after her engagement to marry Prince Richard. She has brought her very salt of the Earth father with her and over the past year her blog has become very popular and she's been making the media rounds as a result.
Despite many trips back to Aldovia in the past year, this is the first time she's seeing the results of a new initiative her husband to be has put in place, and they're far from good. On top of all that, she has to deal with the extremely over the top Sahil and Mrs Averill, who despite being well-meaning and wanting the Royal Family to be viewed in a good light, push Amber's wishes concerning her wedding and her blog to the side in favour of protocol.
Ok, maybe well-meaning might be putting them into a too nice of light, but I don't see them as villains. They're honestly just doing their jobs. Should they actually listen to Amber - yes, especially as she is going to be Queen, but you need those kinds of antagonistic characters to give stories some zest.
Oh! And Simon has returned and he's a lot more likable this time around!
I honestly loved this movie. It was a lovely sequel to the original and it shows a lot of things in a realistic way; like the protocols a person needs to adjust to when entering a family like a royal family. Yes, they're very overbearing and aren't up to date, but there are a lot of them that are in place for a reason and it's just a matter of updating them to fit the times. Once Amber does actually start voicing her opinion a lot louder that is.
As much as I wanted Amber to find her voice a lot sooner in this movie, I think the time that she does works well as for the first time she is working as a unit with Prince Richard, something they really aren't doing throughout the movie. Once they are working together, they are an amazing force and it reinforces that marriage is a partnership and not a solo act.
Simon has a huge redemption arch in the movie as well. As much as I didn't want to, I found myself actually liking him by the end and I hope that we see more of him and Melissa if they do another movie. Also, Andy and Sahil had a lovely moment that I would like to see explored as well.
It was also nice to see Amber's Dad making friends with the Chef. It didn't feel as if he was looking for anything romantic, just that he wanted to be friends and I thought that was a beautiful touch.
Is it cliche? Yes.
Is it stereotypical in parts? Yes.
Is it something nice and fluffy for the holiday season? Yes.
Ultimately, if you're not a fan of Hallmark-style movies, you may not enjoy A Christmas Prince or A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding. If you are, however, then I think you'll enjoy it. It follows that typical plot line of underlying big thing being covered by smaller but just as important things, and in the end, everything gets tied up with a perfect Christmas bow.
Hi guys and Welcome! I'm Sophie, a 20 something Australian lady who spends her days ensuring that tiny humans stay alive (aka - a nanny) while studying at University and playing games. Thanks for stopping by!
