Marathon worth going distance for
Brittany Fogler (Jillian Bell) is known for her offbeat sense of humour, upbeat personality and inability to be anywhere on time. But behind the sometimes questionable jokes and copious amounts of comfort food, she worries that everybody else is living better lives (her roommate is a wannabe Instagram influencer and her sister spearheads Habitat for Humanity on her weekends).
Hauling herself to the doctor, the 28-year-old doesn’t take kindly to his suggestion that she needs to lose 15-20 kilograms.
At almost $130 a month, a gym is out of the question, so she reluctantly decides to start pounding the New York pavements.
Support, even if she doesn’t really want it, comes from an unlikely source. Neighbour Catherine (Michaela Watkins) is an artist who Brittany loathes for having seemingly the perfect life. However, Catherine invites her to join her Astoria Runners Group, where Brittany bonds with fellow straggler Seth (Micah Stock).
Slowly building her confidence and distance, she begins to eschew the temptations mainly offered by her roomie and starts setting her sights on the New York Marathon.
Inspired by the experiences of writer-director Paul Downs Colaizzo’s (who co-wrote the pilot for the reboot of TV’s MacGyver) friend Brittany O’Neill, Brittany Runs a Marathon is a delightful dramedy that deserves to find a large audience.
It perhaps tries to cover too many modern maladies and malaises, as well as shoehorn in traditional Hollywood rom-com tropes, but it’s hard not to like this transformative tale of selfempowerment. This is the movie Amy Schumer’s I Feel Pretty should have been – and this year’s Trainwreck or The Big Sick.
That’s partly because of Colaizzo’s ability to craft raw, revealing conversations and dialogue that stays with you, but also mainly because of a terrific performance from Bell (Rough Night, The Night Before).
Clearly throwing herself into the role, running shoes and all, she creates a memorably funny, flawed character whose path to a new life is filled with plenty of pitfalls – many of her own making.
‘‘I’m not going to be your fat sidekick any more,’’ Brittany vents at her roomie. After this winning turn, here’s hoping Bell will be offered the leads her talents clearly deserve.
Brittany Runs a Marathon (M) is screening in select cinemas now. It will debut on Amazon Prime Video on November 15.