This is not a review. Last week I went to a free screening of “Penelope.” Aside from everything the critics may have said, I still enjoyed it for my own reasons. I was curious to see a movie with the same themes as my script “Plastic” that was light, funny, cute and ultimately has a positive message. I’m starting to think I’m incapable of writing anything even close to light when it comes to the subject of female body image. My mind has been stuck on it for quite a while. Two scripts finished, and the third in the works, one of these days I’ll move on and stop asking how far women will go in the name of beauty.
If only I could be like Penelope and break my own curse by saying the powerful words: “I like myself the way I am.” Maybe when I do, I’ll be able to write about women who don’t diet obsessively, who don’t use food to hide from their feelings, who don’t get horribly disfigured by other enraged women, who don’t turn into full size Barbie dolls.
Whatever others might say about the movie, it struck me, it moved me, and it made sense to me. If nothing else, it made me wish life were that simple. One epiphany and your whole life is changed, you suddenly accept yourself. I’ve been working on that for 28 years, and haven’t quite mastered it. Would Penelope’s snout come back on days she feels ugly and less accepting of herself? Now, that would be more realistic. Still, I think everyone wishes they could find someone who would love then even if they had a pig snout. But in real life you’d be calling Dr. 90210, curse or not…
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