Ugly Melanie

Okay, so in french class, the teacher made us watch this film called "La Vilaine". I had no expectations, and it was a comedy, so I brought those low expectations to an impossibly low level (not a fan of french humor). However, I was still disappointed, and here's why: The lead character is a cold, heartless, and overall mean-spirited bitch. Okay, so maybe she's been wronged in the past (in ways that are already too cruel to be realistic), but then she goes to the extreme, treating EVERYONE like a pile of crap. The only reason why you'd want to motivate her is because ALMOST everyone takes advantage of her, and so she only gets revenge on those who wronged her, right? Nope, she throws a kitten into the garbage can, barfs into he garbage can after eating too many chocolates (which were delivered by a boy who she slapped in the face, along with other forms of abuse which should get her arrested), tying her neighbor's dog to a bus because the neighbor made the lead character walk the dog every morning (so shouldn't the neighbor be getting punishment, not the helpless dog who doesn't understand what's going on?), and many other terrible things. The problem is that we're supposed to root for her, but the title makes it very apparent that SHE is the villain. Her behavior has no middle ground: she's either far too nice, or just way too evil. Besides, for the most part, most of what she does isn't even justifiable, so she loses any form of sympathy we might have had for her. This film is absolute trite, the bare minimum of what can be achieved with film. In other movies like Taxi Driver, the character's surroundings are harsh and unwelcoming, but the character is likable enough to pull us through the experience. This is just an amateur effort, truly an awful and despicable experience. I'm surprised by some of the user reviews (all two of them), because they actually say that this was an above average movie, but let me tell you, I only got a few chuckles out of this film, and only because of how horrible the lead character was.