Une taille de reine

In our society, being different can be a terrible experience, specially for a youngster who should be enjoying that stage of her life. Being overweight carries a stigma for insecure people. The cruelty of their peers can be devastating for a young person who finds rejection every way she turns.

Take Maggie, a girl being raised by her working mother. Because of her size, she is made the butt of all jokes at the high school she attends. To make matters worse, as a prank, she is entered as a candidate for the Prom Queen, something that, as a rule, is reserved for those popular and cute girls whose popularity among the student body assures them of the title. Maggie proves to be an excellent contestant who proves that no matter what size she wears, she still a winner.

The film wouldn't be half the fun it is had Nikki Blonsky not being cast as Maggie. As she had shown in "Hairspray", Ms. Blonsky is a talented actress that one hopes will keep on being cast in movies that rely on her bubbly personality to carry the picture. Annie Potts, who we haven't seen in a while, shows up as Nikki's overworked mother. Peter Levin directed with style giving the viewer a nice excuse to watch "Queen Sized".

I just finished this movie. I'll admit coming in I was skeptical but I figured I'd give it a chance, being a big girl myself. I half wish I had never watched it. It was filled with fat people stereotypes, such as, every fat person has 10 things of junk food hidden around the room, fat people have pictures of skinny people plastered on their walls (some with their heads on skinny bodies), that whenever fat people are upset they freak out and need to run to the fridge, etc. I was so offended by the obvious stereotypes in a movie that was supposed to be about fighting stereotypes that it about made me sick. Sure not all popular people are mean, all jocks aren't jerks, etc. But a fat person has to love food like it's crack. I will say that the movie did have some good inspirational times but they were just shot down by unrealistic moments. I am really disappointed by this movie.

Having Nikki B in it was a winning combination for me to watch this movie though I am not the biggest Lifetime movie fanatic. I have to say that though the movie does have some very honest points, it also reminds me why I am not a big lover of life time movies. Nikki B was absolutely charming in this role as an over-weight teenager picked on and prodded by the other kids in her school. Not being the prettiest, not most popular person of any group is always hard and I think that she conveyed that with a style and grace like no other. I even understood and empathized with her in almost ever situation but at times it was a little whiney and slow to move forward with the story and the plot. The movie really didn't need to be the length that it was because sometimes it dragged on and made you more annoyed at the characters, all of them, and I don't think it was trying to. All in all it is nice TV movie with some positive merits-not award winning though by any standard.

I can't believe I'm watching this three nights in a row but something about it just keeps drawing me back. Being a former geek, especially in grammar and junior high school, I can really relate to Nikki's character. I too would have preferred invisibility over non-stop attention but of the negative kind. I can also relate to coming out of dorkdom but still acting and feeling like a victim, wondering if everyone still perceived me that way. I can't say that I don't still carry my own Annie Potts figure around in my mind at times and found that to be one of the most interesting aspect of the show. The acting, especially by Ms. Blonsky, was uniformly excellent and I found Fabian Moreno to be quite interesting and not hard on the eyes. I also liked that Nikki's character proved to have flaws of her own and that she allowed her fifteen minutes of fame to go to her head. Also interesting was that her competition for homecoming queen proved to be quite nice. I would certainly recommend this movie to anyone looking for something meaningful.

You really have to be plump to understand what heavy people go through. Just like it says in the film, if you denounce a race, you're a racist. What do we call people who show prejudice towards heavy individuals?

Nikki Blonsky, of "Hairspray" fame, does a beautiful acting job here detailing what heavy set people go through. Yes, they are literally outcasts in this society.

When the vicious in-kids nominate her for "Homecoming Queen," just for laughs, Blonsky decides to pursue the dream. She is running for all the nerds. It's time that we stop stereotyping what we automatically want in a homecoming queen.

What makes the film so good is that it's shown that the Blonsky character is without faults herself. The redemption of many of the characters by film's end is just great to watch.

We can all learn from this. If it weren't for all those health concerns regarding fat people, we could certainly say that fat is beautiful.