The DUFF (2015)

 

Hearing the premise of this movie made me think this was going to be a She’s All That rip off and I was wrong. While the concept is similar, The DUFF is more enjoyable and realistic than the famous predecessor. This doesn’t mean that the film doesn’t have it’s faults but the good outweighs the small amounts of cringeworthy tropes and misunderstanding of teenage social media use.

The Main Story

Bianca (Mae Whitman) is a high school senor who smart, funny, is into obscure cult films and isn’t very fashionable. But her high school life changes after finds out that she is the DUFF (aka the Designated Ugly Fat Friend) of her group. She enlists the help of her neighbor, football team captain and manwhore Wes (Robbie Amell) to get rid of the DUFF title and become dateable.

Script and Cinematography

  Wes (Robbie Amell) trying to apologize to Bianca (Mae Whitman)  

The movie’s DUFF concept is a spin that freshens the Ugly Girl trope of high school films. The film concept is hard to absorb at first since Mae Whitman is far from ugly (most people would say she’s cute). But the script explains this away quite nicely, with the male lead explains that she isn’t Ugly, she’s just not as “hot” as her best friends and this is true with other people in high schoo; every group has a DUFF. This is much better explanation than She’s All That covering up Rachael Leigh Cook with overalls, a ponytail, and glasses and calling her unfixable. They don’t try to hide Bianca (although she does wear the stereotypical “ugly girl” overalls). Instead they dress her down with comfortable clothing. You can see her as being a girl that people might not notice but can be beautiful by the end of the film.

The dialogue in this movie is fantastic. Mae Whitman and Robbie Amell deliver their banter with such sincerity and wit that you’re always waiting for their scenes. There are some great funny quips by supporting characters that get a couple of chuckles and keep in the film while you wait for the main characters.

Where the film really fails in it’s writing is it’s handling of social media and technology and pulling in some contrived plot points. There’s an awful explanation of technology when Bianca’s best friend (who’s conveniently a hacker) manages to take down a YouTube video through YouTube. This would have been believable if A) they established more of the character’s abilities and B) if they would have done it in a realistic manner by blocking YouTube off the school’s wifi. There are more moments like this that take away from the film.

  "Hacking" done by one of the supporting characters  

There are also a couple of cringe worthy lines in the film, the most atrocious being two different scenes of a pair of extras looking at a video/article, turning to each other and saying “Viral” together. No one says this as if they are actively trying to make a video viral. But even after these incidents, the film does portray social media in a fun and semi-realistic manner. Its only when it is shoved into the script is when it fails.

Another problem with the film is the fact that it concentrates all of it’s focus on the main characters, which is great since the leads are so likable but left the supporting cast lacking any development. Even the main leads have some sloppy, quick development. For instance, Wes has a troubled home life that is only talked about for 5 minutes. That is very short for the second billing and for such a serious topic.

But the message is actually a good message. At the end of the film, Bianca explains that there's always going to be another person who is smarter, prettier, and better than you. You just have accept and love yourself and not care about what other people think. The message is corny and overdone but attached to this film and Whitman's performance, it works.

As far as cinematography, this film is shot like a modern high school/chick film. There’s no special shots or scenes but a high school comedy like this one doesn’t need anything fancy.

The Main Characters and The Romance

  Wes (Robbie Amell) and Bianca (Mae Whitman) sitting on her special relaxing spot  

The lead characters are the driving force of this film for a good reason. Mae Whitman is amazing in the TV series Parenthood and in comedic roles in Arrested Development and Scott Pilgrim. Here, her comedic chops shine. She is incredibly smart and witty as Bianca but at the same time is impulsive and awkward without it feeling uncomfortable or forced. You believe this girl is someone who doesn’t get noticed. She likes people but she’s a bit awkward. She’s smart but not introverted, she just likes doing her own thing. So it’s no surprise that she can get along with her longtime neighbor Wes, who is equally witty and friendly.

Compared to Freddie Prince Jr. in She’s All That , Robbie Amell is much more relatable and likeable. Even though Wes is bribed with tutoring by Bianca, you can tell he actually cares about her and knows her. Although he’s not academically smart, he’s fun and friendly. Amell really pulls this role off and makes what would be an arrogant and conceited character very likable.

The romance is very believable. You actually want to see these characters together and work out even after high school. They make fun of each other, they compliment each other and they support one another. When Wes does something to offend or hurt Bianca, he tries to resolve it actively within 3 minutes of screen time. Even though you can tell these two characters don’t have everything in common, they are a perfect fit because both of them aren’t perfect and both are trying to break out of the societal roles people give them. The main leads are great and there’s a reason why 80% of the film focuses solely on them.

Supporting Characters

  Bella Thorne as Madison, classic queen bee bitch  

The marketing of this film is off base. There are numerous movie posters that include characters that barely have 10 minutes of screen time. All of the supporting characters are there to drive the plot or the main characters together in the least developed way possible. Only the villain, Madison, gets enough screen time to have a personality (though a very one-dimesional one). Bella Thorne does a fine job as bitchy, popular, wannabe YouTube star Madison. Madison is in an on-and-off relationship with Wes and is just a straight up horrible girl. The character is bitchy and you hate her but it doesn’t bring in anything special. She has no real motivation and there’s no real reason for her to be as big of a bitch as the film makes her out to be.

  Dottie (Allsion Janney) grieving after her divorce  

Allison Janney plays Bianca’s mother, Dottie, and she’s very underused like the rest of the supporting cast. Janney has done funny minor roles before and in this, she just plays a divorced mother that comes in at the end to encourage her daughter. Nothing special.

  Casey (Bianca A. Santos), Jess (Skyler Samuels), and Bianca (Mae Whitman)  

The most forced characters of this film are Bianca’s best friends, Casey (Bianca A. Santos) and Jess (Skyler Samuels) who are just in the film to drive the plot and take care of minor details. Their characters are explained quickly at the beginning of the film and put aside so fast it creates a whiplash. Casey is a soccer star and a hacker and Jess is a Buddhist and a fashionista and that’s it. There’s nothing else established by these two besides they’re childhood friends with Bianca and their convenient use for the plot.

Ken Jeong, Chris Wylde, and Romany Malco all play minor comedic roles as high school teachers and the principal respectively. They’re nothing special and play out their parts well.

Last Opinion

  Wes and Bianca agreeing to help each other  

Overall, The DUFF is a good comedic movie with some major flaws. The film focuses on their fantastic leads but is severely underdeveloped in it’s supporting characters. Most of the dialogue is funny and heartfelt but there are moments when you can tell the writer doesn’t understand technology or teenagers and the script suffers from high school movie tropes. I give this film 6.5/10. The film knows it’s strengths and plays them up to hide its faults and it mostly works. The two leads have chemistry and are funny together. I suggest for anyone who likes chick flicks or high school films to watch this and fans of Mae Whitman will be delighted to see her as a lead.

Leap Year (2010)

 

Leap Year is one of those movies that had an interesting concept that didn’t go anywhere with it. While having a great cast with Amy Adams, Michael Goode and Adam Scott, the actors are underused by a bland script, acting, and cinematography.

The Main Story

Leap Year is about a woman, Anna (Amy Adams), who is applying for an expensive and exclusive apartment with her boyfriend Jeremy (Adam Scott). Disappointed by her boyfriend not proposing to her after 4 years of dating, she finds out from her manic father (John Lithgow in the most shoehorned, tiniest role ever) that in her family’s native Ireland, there is a tradition where a woman can propose to her boyfriend on February 29th in the Leap Year. Since her boyfriend is conveniently traveling to Dublin for a cardiologist convention (yes, her boyfriend is a cardiologist), she decides to go to Ireland to propose to him, getting stranded in the Irish countryside where she meets Declan (Matthew Goode), an owner of a crumbling hotel/restaurant, whom she falls in love with by the end.

Script and Cinematography

 

Anna (Amy Adams) and Declan (Matthew Goode) climbing up towards an crumbled old castle  

The script and cinematography of this film is bland. I understand that Ireland (and the UK in general) doesn’t have the best weather therefore the scenery can’t pop out but most of the film is spent on a muddy road or inside bars and bed in breakfasts. When I first heard about this film, I was excited because Ireland is such a beautiful country that has the potential for beautiful shots and explore the green landscape but it was only in a couple of moments. In the middle of the film, there is a green screen shot of the main actors looking at Ireland that is so obviously pasted in that you can’t get into the scene. The most beautiful shot of the film is at the end when the couple gets together and it’s too late by then to care.

As far as the script is concerned, it’s bland and elements of the story are forced. I understand all chick flicks have a concept that has some suspension of disbelief but none of the forced elements here are used properly. Anna works as an apartment fitter, someone who fixes up apartments and houses with furniture for open houses so they can be sold. This concept isn’t explored beyond the beginning 10 minutes. It explains her love for the apartment she’s applying for with her boyfriend and that’s about it. The film pulls a rug out from under you when you think she would help fix Declan’s business but that doesn’t happen. Beyond that, the audience is told that the reason Anna loves fixing things and is a tight ass because her father is a manic who would badly invest their money, leaving her to work as a teenager and their home being reposed on Christmas Eve (good lord, what a bad cliché).

There are way too many convenient accidents for Anna to not get to Dublin to propose to her boyfriend. At several points of the film, Anna is stopped from going to Dublin by: her plane getting detoured in Wales by a storm, a boat (in a freaking storm that stopped planes!) having to leave her in the Irish country with Declan, Declan’s car running into a pond, her missing a train to Dublin, and then her missing the chance to go to Dublin with the bed and breakfast manager. All of this despite the fact she could have proposed to her boyfriend at any time. I love chick flicks but it seemed like God and universe was telling her that she shouldn’t get married.

Characters

In the first 20 minutes, Amy Adams’s character Anna is so lifeless that you can’t connect with her. As the main protagonist, you have to connect with the character at the beginning of the film but nothing is there. This is shocking since Amy Adams is a great actress who has done some decent female leads in romantic comedies before (see Enchanted). Anna has no personality, not even being that stuck up in moments when she is suppose to be with the rough Irish Declan.

Matthew Goode is okay. He has some personality, being a jaded Decaln who hates Dublin and has declining restaurant/hotel. He has some good lines and Matthew Goode is great to look at. Declan has a forced backstory of him, his fiancée, and his best friend buying the hotel/restaurant, only for the other two to run away with each other in Dublin, hence why he hates that city. This would be interesting it wasn’t just put in for 5 minutes. Near the end of the film, he meets his ex-fiancée for less than 2 minutes to resolve his problems. It was unnecessary to have him resolve this on screen. Matthew Goode half asses this role, bringing some bright lights of comedy when he is antagonizing Amy Adams but that’s about it. Goode even told people that this was his worse film and the reason he did it was because he could travel back to London on the weekends.

 

Adam Scott as Jeremy  

John Lithgow as Anna's father Jim  

There is a small supporting cast in this movie. Adam Scott is a great actor that is beyond plain here. The film tries to make him superficial and conceited to contrast how Amy Adams has grown but that doesn’t even work. It seems like all character was sucked out of his body and he was just a shell of what a great actor he is. John Lithgow is in this movie for less than 3 minutes to explain the concept of the Leap Year proposal in the beginning of the film and that’s it. A great comedic actor is wasted in such a small scene. The scene breaks down as follows:

At a random bar, Anna is waiting for father, father comes in.

Father: you got engaged!

Anna: yeah (but not really)

Father: oh yeah, your grandma proposed to your grandpa using the Leap Year Tradition!

Anna: Oh really? Okay bye, got to go fall in love with someone I only know for three days instead of the thing you said!

End Scene

That’s it. You don’t receive an explanation about him until about two-thirds of the way into the film and even then, it does little receive any interest.

The Romance

 

Declan and Anna  

Amy Adams and Matthew Goode don’t have much chemistry. While Matthew Goode’s character is a little witty, Amy Adams's character doesn’t have any personality to work off it. Both of the characters back stories are forcibility introduced too late into the film to developed any sort of background for the audience to care about the leads. There is no reason to like or even remember the two. They are two good looking people put together just because they are good looking. At the end of the film, Declan ends up proposing to Anna! Even in chick flick standards, this was unwarranted! They spent three days with each other when she was with her boyfriend for 4 years! Even the contestants on the Bachelor have more time to fall in love with the main guy!

Last Opinion

Overall, this film is mediocre. It doesn’t work with what it’s given. It has some fun ideas (the Leap Year proposal, the Irish countryside, the apartment fixer job, and the hotel/restaurant) that were left to the wayside to give to some dumb scenes in which the main characters half ass bicker at each other while traveling through the greyed out Irish country, which is not used to it’s full potential. The film would have been better if they would have restricted it to the hotel/restaurant and had Adams help Goode into fixing up the place and then they would fall in love. It would have been cliché but at least that would leave the character some room to grow. The romance is unbelievable because there is no chemistry between the two, which is needed when you have the chick flick trope hate-turn-to-love relationship . I give this movie a 3.5/10. If you’re a Matthew Goode fan and you think he’s attractive, I would say you could watch this in the background but if not, skip this.