Brittany Runs a Marathon

Brittany Runs a Marathon

Starring Jillian Bell, Utkarsh Ambudkar, Michaela Watkins, Micah Stock

Directed by Paul Downs Colaizzo

The Story:
Brittany (Jillian Bell) is an overweight twenty-something living in New York City with her beautiful roommate Gretchen (Alice Lee), and spends her nights drinking and partying and her days being late to work and nearly broke.  After a visit to the doctor, she learns that she's indeed obese and musts loose weight to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

She interacts with her upstairs neighbor Catherine (Michaela Watkins), who invites her to join her running group, and Brittany begrudgingly obliges.  During her first two-mile run, she meets fellow out-of-shape runner Seth (Micah Stock), and the two become friends.  The three decide to run the coveted New York Marathon in a few months, and all of them work on achieving their goal.  Brittany begins to turn her life around - she looses weight, gets better at running, and finds a second job as a dog sitter and meets slacker Jern (Utkarsh Ambudkar), and the two begin developing feelings for one another.  Yet Brittany's struggles are with more than just her outer appearance, and it's the inner demons that threaten to derail her progress and could possibly prevent her from running in the marathon and falling back to her old ways.

The Synopsis:
Last year Amy Schumer starred in "I Feel Pretty," a film about a single overweight girl living in the big city who takes a blow to the head and suddenly thinks she's attractive, and changes her whole persona to fit this new version of herself.  The film pandered to the idea that it's just a mindset that'll make you beautiful and it's as easy as flipping a switch, and it wasn't really that funny.  So when I heard about another plus-sized comedienne that undergoes a physical transformation seemingly in order to feel better about herself, I figured this would fall under the same tired guise.  But "Brittany Runs a Marathon" (directed and written by Paul Downs Colaizzo who based the story on his real-life roommate Brittany) throws away the vapid outer shell of what you'd expect a film like this to be and really strips Brittany to her barest being, delivering a layered story that goes far beyond outer appearances and really delves into what makes a person struggle with their self-image.

Brittany is your typical millennial - living in an apartment, constantly late for work, nearly broke, spends every night at the club with her friends drinking, and comparing her life to others she sees on Facebook and Instagram.  After a visit to the doctor she's informed that she's obese and needs to loose weight in order to be healthy, and she sets out to do just that - albeit with some complications and hurdles she didn't even know were there in the first place.  In the hands of lazier writers, the film would've been a glossed-over spectacle purely about her outer appearance changing, but instead we're gifted with a deeply profound performance by Jillian Bell that really establishes her as a serious actress as she traverses the landmines of struggling to be healthy when it seems like the whole world is against her.

While the title of the film says it all, there's something deeper going on in Brittany's life than just wanting to run a marathon.  She's spent decades of her life living in the shadows, overlooked by guys and invisible to everyone else around her.  She endured life-shattering events in her childhood that's made her hardened to those around her, even as she maintains a comedic facade.  It's so interesting to see how she interacts with people who genuinely want to help her - she sees it as pity, and pushes them away, even when it seems like things are looking up for her.  This shows a deeper psychological condition that she suffers from that can't be resolved by jogging or eating salads, and Jillian Bell tackles these issues head-on.  She shows that a transformation takes time, and it's never a wholly positive thing, as she sheds the pounds she also sheds those people that she once held dear, but finds that they're holding her back and being negative influences on her life.  Then she finds the pounds rise again, and deals with self-loathing and despair in a way that's wholly natural - something I'm sure millions of people can associate with, myself included.

As someone who's struggled with weight problems myself, I saw a lot of myself in Brittany's struggles.  The last two years I've managed to shed a lot of pounds but I'm still far from where I want to be, but closer to who I want to be as well.  It's a daily struggle, filled with dizzying heights and depressing lows, and doesn't maintain a purely uphill trajectory.  Jillian Bell plays Brittany with this sort of gusto, not shying away from the negative as well as the positive, and even though she's the character you root for, there's moments where her true ugly nature comes to light, but there's also moments of redemption and restoration that she undergoes as well that makes her even more relatable.  She hasn't really been able to helm a film herself, but this first outing is outstanding, and easily her best performance to date.

Likewise the supporting cast all offer either support or skepticism for Brittany, and again they showcase real human emotions and give more than just a one-dimensional performance.  Michaela Watkins stars as Brittany's upstairs neighbor Catherine, who Brittany at first insults as someone who's perfect and has her life together, but she confides in Brittany that things are a lot worse than she makes them out to be, and turns to running to relieve her own pain.  Micah Stock plays Seth, who wishes to improve his own life for his son and his husband, and is in the same boat as Brittany at the start.  Utkarsh Ambudkar plays Jern, a slacker who squats at the mansion where he and Brittany watch their dogs, and also undergoes a transformation of his own after his interactions with Brittany leads him to want to become a better person.  Only Brittany's best friend Gretchen is a negative influence on her, and Alice Lee plays her role to bitter perfection as she doesn't seemingly want to destroy Brittany's happiness, but doesn't seem to applaud it either.

Like most sports films, there's the traditional montages as Brittany as she grows in her own confidence, and there's also the hurdles that she has to jump in order to make her goals reality.  We're with her through it all - from the first powerful moments where she struggles to open the door, all the way to running the marathon and all the joys and pains in between.  Much like the crowds cheering on the runners, we're cheering for Brittany as well - at least I was, which being the only person in the theater made it very refreshing to not look like a total fool when I literally stood up and clapped at the screen - because I wasn't just rooting for Brittany, but rooting for myself as well.

The Summary:
A story delivered with compassion, nuance, and unflinching reality, "Brittany Runs a Marathon" is more than just the story of an overweight girl who struggles with loosing weight, but also delves into the deep psychological reasons for them, culminating in a powerfully surprising performance by Jillian Bell and a film that'll have you cheering.

The Score: A+