FILM PICK OF THE WEEK

A heart-warming coming-of-age story set in small-town Texas, based on the 2015 young adult novel by Julie Murphy, this benefits from strong performances from Jennifer Aniston and Danielle Macdonald.

Macdonald plays Willowdean Dickson, a plus-sized teenager who is grieving the recent loss of her beloved aunt Lucy who mostly raised her while her single mother Rosie (Aniston) was away competing in beauty pageants across the state. The former beauty queen, a champion several times over in her youth, is now a busy and respected beauty pageant organiser who presides over the annual local Miss Teen Bluebonnet competition. The competitors for this contest are all thinner, more conventionally attractive teenage girls – and Willowdean can’t help feeling that her mother would rather her daughter was more like them.

While Rosie is self-absorbed and driven, she is not a monster and although their relationship is not an easy one, she loves her daughter who she affectionately but a little insensitively refers to as ‘dumplin’. As a form of protest, to honour the memory of her aunt Lucy who was also a larger woman, Willowdean decides to enter the competition. She also enlists her best friend Ellen (Odeya Rush) as a competitor and her action inspires another plus-sized schoolfriend Millie (Maddie Baillio) to also sign up. The idea is to shake up traditional attitudes towards what is considered beautiful.

Inspired by her aunt Lucy, who also introduced her to Dolly Parton’s music and philosophy, Willowdean prepares for the competition, attending dance and deportment classes and getting a magic act together for the special talent section of the contest. With her friends she also goes along to a Dolly Parton night at a local nightclub where they get to know the drag queens, who it turns out were friends with Lucy. They give the girls some tips on styling and performance. Meanwhile Willowdean is also beginning a relationship with heart-throb Bo (Luke Benward), her co-worker at the local burger bar, complicated by the fact that she doesn’t believe he could fall for her.

While the storyline addresses some pressing and resonant issues, it follows a fairly predictable narrative arc. What elevates it is the quality performances, plus some cracking Dolly Parton songs.