Babycakes

IF you want a cheesy love story - this is right up there - looks aren't everything - and its Ricki Lake before she got a talk show and lost all her weight --- its cute in a cheese filled way - and its SO very late eighties early nineties -- I liked that its about finding yourself as much as it is about finding someone to be with - and I love that he is a figure skater --- how amusing is that? Craig Sheffer is great as a guy torn between what he wants and what he thinks he should want. Ricky Lake plays a fat girl who has no self esteem - and I just like the cheesy feel good category that this falls into. I also really liked the element of cattiness in this movie - that some people just cannot stand by and watch someone change or find happiness without getting involved... and its pretty cute for a TV movie.

I am not a fan of Ricki Lake and Craig Scheffer fails to excite me as well, but put them together in a formulatic love story about a "handsome" man falling for a "fat girl" and it comes to a somewhat entertaining film.

Ricki Lake is Grace, a young, hideously overweight girl who works a secluded job at a funeral parlor, but longs for love and adventure in the real world. Of course, since she is fat(and this is a movie), she isn't getting any and this becomes frustrating, particularly after her new step-mother Wanda points out to her that she needs to lose a lot of weight before she could find love. Humiliated, Grace pretends that she does have a boyfriend "who loves her just the way she is", and now (of course), Wanda and Grace's father want to meet him, so Grace must come up with a man. She manages to find Rob, a handsome young man who truly does seem to like her. After a little bit of persuasion, he agress to visit her family in the guise of her lover, and soon it seems that he is doing more than just pretending. He actually likes Grace!

But there is one hitch...Rob already has a girlfriend, she's just visiting her family and Rob is bored without her and longs for more than the company of his obnoxious friends. Grace and Rob make a fine pair of friends(except for one occasion when Rob's buddies show up and he moves away from Grace, causing her to wail, "you're ashamed to be seen with me"--such stereotypical lines are one of the fallbacks of this film.), but they know it can't last forever, and when his real girlfriend, Olivia, storms in on them, things go from bad to worse. Now what is Grace to do?

I am not the biggest fan of love stories, and the romance between Grace and Rob failed to really interest me, though it was nice of Hollywood to attempt to give hope to the "fat girls" by saying that good looking boys COULD love them. The rest of the film, dealing with Grace's relations to everybody, is less than appealing, as we see that she is judged simply by her weight. This isn't depicted as "right" of course, but the constant preachy lines("nobody knows what it's like to move around in this large body")and the over-blown "prejudices" to Grace get a little tiresome. Particularly grueling is the scene where Olivia does catch Grace and Rob and in a fit of rage begins to hit Grace with her purse while saying things like "you fat, ugly b*&^! You make me SICK!" While most people would have howled with laughter, Lake dramatically falls to the ground, and it becomes hard to tell if she IS laughing hysterically, or sobbing and making a spectacle of herself. A less than underwhelming climactic scene, to say the least in a rather sub-par, though slightly entertaining film.

"Babycakes" is the story of a girl who thought she was an ugly-duckling, and wants to get the most handsome guy she has ever seen (Craig Sheffer, a few years before "A River Runs Through It"). At first put off by her weight, he learns to like her and finds that there is more to her than simply girth.

Ricki Lake is very appealing in this movie. Sure, she was fat, but that only adds to her appeal. I thought she was very attractive in "Babycakes" and this film certainly adds to the message that big women are desirable people too.

Seeing her now only makes me wish she looked like she did in "Babycakes".

I recommend this small movie, especially if you are a romantic. George

This is one of my fave TV movies. I saw it when i was young and loved it because it does tell people to not judge a book by it's cover.

I am older and still love this movie. I got this DVD as a present from a friend and i almost cried because he knew how much i loved this movie.

It's a story of a "fat" girl who does what everyone thinks she can't. Get a hot guy. She proves them all wrong. She can and WILL get the guy. And she does. I think more people need to look on the inside of people rather than outer appearances. Looks will fade but a beautiful soul never does. And like this movie that message will stand the test of time.

It has to be said from reading the others comments that this film produces a completely different reaction on those who have weight issues & those who don't. The fact that the film is based on society's reactions and experiences for people (Rikki) with weight issues and those who don't! (Rob) - later, even Ricki herself said that she no longer wished to play such obvious roles.

As a larger person myself, the idea of emotional love and physical love with a slim person in combination can be a problem. Negative Body Image can be very distructve - Happily I experienced the 'hunk relationship' which was very healing - but for all the wrong reasons -I am guilty of proving to society that good looking people don't find fat people unattractive. In fact it took several (or more) such relationships to realise that relationships are much much deeper. Sorry to bore you, but I really did relate to the film.

I didn't want the film to be seen just as a 'Hollywood Dream' as on commenter wrote . . . "as if the fat girl would get the hunk".

But, yes the film was funny, it was sweet and very entertaining.