SHORT TAKE

BRITTANY RUNS A MARATHON

Contrary to its trailer, Brittany Runs a Marathon is not a chick-flick comedy about a fat girl who loses weight and finds love. It’s actually a wide-appeal story about an overweight girl who seeks to take control of her messy life by training for the New York Marathon. In doing so, she may just find that she can love herself.

Based on a real-life Brittany, this feature debut by writer-director Paul Downs Colaizzo is witty and charming thanks to its down-to-earth lead played by comedian Jillian Bell ( Rough Night). Colaizzo has done something innovative – written a script in which the traditional movie sidekicks are the main characters and are, by extension, pleasingly diverse in race and sexuality.

It’s not new to see stories of larger ladies asserting their right to headline a movie – Rebel Wilson and Amy Schumer have been doing that for a while now with mixed success. But, far from fatshaming its plus-sized protagonist or making us laugh along at her “hilarious” self-deprecation, Brittany is more a cry for health. The doctor (always a key supporting character in films about selfimprovement) isn’t patronising; he just prompts the film’s real talk about how we live out the way we see ourselves.

Gritty rather than glossy, Brittany isn’t trying to be an “inspiring” film, but its core truth will at the very least give many pause for thought.

Sarah Watt IN CINEMAS NOW, ON AMAZON PRIME FROM NOVEMBER 15