''Pretty Ugly People'' is a 2008 American

black comedy Black comedy, also known as black humor, bleak comedy, dark comedy, dark humor, gallows humor or morbid humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

written and directed by Tate Taylor, in his

feature film directorial debut This is a list of film directorial debuts in chronological order. The films and dates referred to are a director's first commercial cinematic release. Many filmmakers have directed works which were not commercially released, for example early work ...

. It was filmed in

Montana Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...

. The film is the story of a group of childhood friends brought back together by one of their number, Lucy (played by

Missi Pyle Missi Pyle (born November 16, 1972) is an American actress and singer. She has appeared in films including ''Galaxy Quest'' (1999), ''Josie and the Pussycats (film), Josie and the Pussycats'' (2001), ''Bringing Down the House (film), ''Bringing ...

), who planned a surprise four-day hike in the

wilderness to celebrate losing hundreds of pounds of weight after

gastric bypass Gastric bypass surgery refers to a technique in which the stomach is divided into a small upper pouch and a much larger lower "remnant" pouch, where the small intestine is rearranged to connect to both. Surgeons have developed several differen ...

surgery. However, Lucy quickly realizes while she has become thin and happy, her friends, played by

Melissa McCarthy Melissa Ann McCarthy (born August 26, 1970) is an American actress, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. She is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Melissa McCarthy, numerous accolades, including two Primetime Emmy Award ...

Larry Sullivan Lawrence Edward Sullivan, Jr. (born September 10, 1970) is an American actor. Among his prominent roles is that of Robert, Will's ballet dancing boyfriend, on the NBC television series ''Will & Grace''. The episode was the show's first ever h ...

Phill Lewis Phillip David Lewis (born February 14, 1968) is an American actor, comedian, and director. He is best known for playing hotel manager Mr. Moseby on the Disney Channel series ''The Suite Life of Zack & Cody'' and its spin-off, ''The Suite Life ...

Josh Hopkins William Joshua Hopkins (born September 12, 1970) is an American actor. His best known roles include Raymond Millbury on '' Ally McBeal'' (2001–2002), Grayson Ellis on '' Cougar Town'' (2009–2015), and Liam O'Connor on '' Quantico'' (2015–2 ...

Jack Noseworthy Jack Evan Noseworthy Jr. is an American actor known for his roles in ''Event Horizon'', '' U-571'', ''Barb Wire'', and '' Killing Kennedy''. Early life Noseworthy graduated from Lynn English High School in 1982. He earned a Bachelor of Fine Art ...

Octavia Spencer Octavia Lenora Spencer (born May 25, 1970) is an American actress. She is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and a Golden Globe Award, in addition to nominations for two Primetime Emmy ...

, and Philip Littell, are miserable.

Plot

The film begins with a voice-over by Lucy (

) discussing what it's like being fat, and having skinny friends in college. She calls her friend Becky (

), crying and insinuating she is dying. She asks Becky to rally all of the women's college friends for one final trip to see Lucy, who now helps run Holland Lake Lodge in

Condon, Montana Condon is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Missoula County, Montana, United States. Located along the Swan River and Montana Highway 83, Condon is situated between the Swan Range to the east and the Mission Mountains t ...

. Orchestrated by Becky, the circle of friends meet up in an airport in Montana. Becky brings her husband Richard and introduces him, for the first time, to commodities trader George,

Grammy The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious a ...

nominated rap producer Trevor, flight attendant Austin, and State Representative Raye who also brings his wife, Mary (

). When the group is assembled a man named Sam approaches the group and tells them Lucy has sent him to drive them to the lodge where she is staying. After arriving at the lodge, the group is greeted by an attractive blonde woman. When no one recognizes her, Lucy reveals to her friends that it is her, no longer fat. Later at lunch, Lucy explains to her friends that she has had

gastric bypass surgery Gastric bypass surgery refers to a technique in which the stomach is divided into a small upper pouch and a much larger lower "remnant" pouch, where the small intestine is rearranged to connect to both. Surgeons have developed several differen ...

and she remains four pounds away from her ideal weight. Waking the group early the next morning, she informs them that they are going on a four-day hike in which she will drop her final four pounds of weight. The majority of the film centers on the hiking trip. Over the course of the trip, various aspects of the lives of all of Lucy's friends are revealed. George reveals himself as

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late ...

. Raye and Mary are unhappy together and Mary ends up taking off her wedding ring and ending her marriage to Raye. Similarly, Becky and Richard are unhappy in their marriage, and it is revealed that Becky is having an affair with a co-worker. At the end of the hike, Lucy prepares dinner for them before Sam comes to pick everyone up in the bus. Everyone is angry with Lucy, especially Becky, who convinced everyone else to come after Lucy called her. Lucy tells them she believed that becoming thin would make her as happy as them, but what she has realized on the trip is that none of them are happy, and that it never had anything to do with weight. As Sam is driving the group back to the lodge, he has a heart attack and the bus goes off the road. Sam is dead and Richard dies while waiting for help. Richard apologizes to Becky for the way he treated her just before he dies. Everyone else survives, after Raye runs to get help, also proving to Mary that he cares about others more than himself. Raye goes back to Washington and wins a Senate election. In the final scenes of the movie, everyone (except for Raye) is having lunch on a beach, an inestimable time after the bus accident. Lucy and Becky, who is pregnant, wade into the water so that Becky can toss Richard's ashes to sea. Afterwards, they hug.

Cast

as Lucy, a former

obese Obesity is a medical condition, considered by multiple organizations to be a disease, in which excess body fat has accumulated to such an extent that it can potentially have negative effects on health. People are classified as obese when ...

woman who reunites her childhood friends to celebrate her

surgery *

as Becky, Lucy's best childhood friend who is now overweight *

as Austin, a

flight attendant A flight attendant is a member of the aircrew whose primary responsibility is ensure the safety of passengers in the cabin of an aircraft across all stages of flight. Their secondary duty is to see to the comfort of passengers. Flight attenda ...

and one of Lucy's childhood friends *

as Raye, a

State Representative A state legislature is a legislative branch or body of a political subdivision in a federal system. Two federations literally use the term "state legislature": * The legislative branches of each of the fifty state governments of the United St ...

and one of Lucy's childhood friends *

as George, a

commodities trader A commodity market is a market that trades in the primary economic sector rather than manufactured products. The primary sector includes agricultural products, energy products, and metals. Soft commodities may be perishable and harvested, wh ...

and one of Lucy's childhood friends *

as Trevor, the successful

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...

-nominated producer of the

rap Rapping (also rhyming, flowing, spitting, emceeing, or MCing) is an artistic form of vocal delivery and emotive expression that incorporates " rhyme, rhythmic speech, and ommonlystreet vernacular". It is usually performed over a backin ...

band Motherfucking 3 and one of Lucy's childhood friends *

as Mary, Raye's wife * Philip Littell as Richard, Becky's husband *

William Sanderson William Sanderson (born January 10, 1944) is a retired American actor. He played J. F. Sebastian in the feature film ''Blade Runner'' (1982), and had regular roles on several television series, playing Larry on ''Newhart'' (1982–1990), E. B ...

as Sam, the driver of Lucy's bus *

Allison Janney Allison Brooks Janney (born November 19, 1959) is an American actress. Known for her performances across the screen and stage, she has received List of awards and nominations received by Allison Janney, various accolades, including an Academy A ...

as Suzanne, an airplane passenger *

Ben Falcone Benjamin Scott Falcone (born August 25, 1973) is an American actor, comedian and filmmaker. He is married to actress Melissa McCarthy, with whom he frequently collaborates. Falcone made his directorial debut in 2014 with ''Tammy (film), Tammy'', ...

as Coach Merryweather * Tate Taylor as George's boyfriend

Reception

The film has a user rating of 5.0 due to mixed critic reviews on

IMDb IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and biograp ...

Awards

The film seems largely ignored by critics, however, it did well on the

independent film An independent film, independent movie, indie film, or indie movie is a feature film or short film that is film production, produced outside the Major film studios, major film studio system in addition to being produced and distributed by independ ...

circuit. It was the winner of "Best Feature Film" at the Berks Madness film festival. It took the same award at both the Berkley and Long Island film festivals. Also, it won an "audience choice" award at the Crossroads film festival.

References

External links

* * {{Tate Taylor American comedy-drama films 2008 directorial debut films 2008 films Films directed by Tate Taylor Films produced by Brunson Green Films shot in Montana Films set in Montana Gay-related films 2000s English-language films 2000s American films 2008 independent films American independent films American LGBTQ-related films English-language independent films