In the film To Be Fat like Me, directed by Douglas Barr, high school student Alyson Schimdt (Kaley Cuoco) is injured while competing for a college scholarship in a girls' softball game. She is injured so badly she cannot play for the rest of the season. Instead, she enters into a film contest with her classmate Jamie. In this exposé she tries to find out what it is like to be "fat." She goes to summer school at a different school, wears a fat suit, and does not change her personality or behavior. She also goes into certain social settings like a party, the coffee shop, and a ladies clothing store. Each social outing shows a different side of what it is like to be "fat." After almost all is said and done, she must create an ending for the exposé so she may finally reveal it to everyone and enter it into the competition.
There are many messages in the film. Have you ever heard "don't judge a book by its cover"? Well that message is the main theme in this film. It says just because people look different from you that does not give you the right to judge them by what is on the outside. Another message in this film is stereotypes. Alyson (Kaley Cuoco) is a pretty, skinny, and athletic girl; but she is also a very good person. This movie shows that stereotypes are not always right in many cases. This movie also shows that stereotypes can be right. Some of the popular people make fun of her almost to the point of ridiculous. They could have been polite to her. Instead, they decided to live up to the stereotype. They "moo'ed" and called her names instead.
The one thing that caught my eye about this film was the fact that she could be skinny one second and "fat" the next. I liked that the exposé was looked at from both views without varying opinion. I was pretty much interested the whole time. The responses she got from people were ridiculous; but very authentic. It's true that people are treated different just by the way they look. That should never be the case. I only disliked one thing about this film: the ending could have been a little better. I won't ruin it though. She just should have revealed herself to a certain group of people in a different way. All in all this was a pretty satisfying movie. I would definitely watch it again.
