The Bottom Line
A tough, uncompromising movie that's more interested in commenting on gender roles and power relationships than telling a compelling story.
Pros
- Controversial director Catherine Breillat knows how to shock and disturb
- Criterion treatment includes essays, and behind-the-scenes footage
Cons
- Cruel and cynical ending
- Breillat shocks for shock's sake
Description
- France, 2001. 86 mins.
- New, restored high-definition digital transfer.
- Behind-the-scenes footage from the making of Fat Girl.
- Two interviews with the director, including a look at the film's alternate ending.
- French and U.S. theatrical trailers
- An essay by film scholar Ginette Vincendeau and an interview with Catherine Breillat.
Guide Review - Fat Girl DVD
Fat Girl is (no surprise here) about an overweight female adolescent, pudgy and wise Anais (Anais Reboux.) It is also about her sister Elena (Roxane Mesquida), who is not only older but also considerably slimmer. The mismatched sisters are at the family's vacation home on the Atlantic coast, and of course they are looking to lose their virginity. Elena has the clear advantage, and a suitor is soon at hand in the tan body of Fernando, who whispers sweet nothings in Elena's ears and initiates bad sex while Anais pretends to be asleep in the next bed. Call it coming-of-age-by-proxy. Breillat's observations of the vulnerability and cunning of teenage lovers are all dead-on.
For most of its running time, Fat Girl is a solid coming-of-age flick that intrigues thanks to its lead actresses Anais Reboux and Roxane Mesquida. Both girls brilliantly teeter on the edge between childishness and maturity, and the scenes between the sisters are marked by an utterly believable love-hate relationship. Unfortunately, Breillat has a shocker of an ending up her sleeve that strikes a fatal blow to the film.
