By Melissa Antoinette Garza
Dolly Parton is all sorts of perfection. I’m certain that the only people who dislike Dolly Parton are psychopaths and sociopaths. She’s just fabulous and her fabulousness is one of the major focal points of the NETFLIX film DUMPLIN’.
The movie begins with Willowdean (Brooke Hartzog) a young girl who identifies more with her Aunt Lucy (Hillary Begley) than her beauty queen mother, Rosie (Jennifer Aniston). Lucy teaches Willowdean about the greatness that is Dolly Parton. They even have Parton themed parties. At one of the parties, Willowdean is introduced to her best friend Ellen (Taegen Burns) who shares the love for Dolly, too.
The two remain extremely close and in high-school, Ellen (Odeya Rush) is there for Willowdean (Danielle Macdonald) when her aunt dies. Willowdean is a girl who was always picked on for being overweight, but has a pretty good head on her shoulders. Other than some misplaced hatred for all beauty pageant winners because of her mother’s focus on the shows, Willowdean is doing quite well.
She works at a small diner and feelings develop between her and the cook Bo (Luke Benward). Willowdrean downplays the crush because her insecurity takes over. She doesn’t think a cute boy would go for her. Ellen tries to build her ego, but she’s afraid of rejection. This is the road of so many fem goddesses in training. It’s easy for a young girl to question everything, fear being turned down and to hold some hatred towards conventionally attractive women. The gals in the beauty pageant represent what Willowdean is sure that the world including Bo wants. She is further humiliated when Rosie screams out her nickname Dumplin’ in front of the entire school, thus increasing the ridicule she endures. Ellen tries to have her back, but it’s difficult.
Eventually and rightfully, Willow knees a scumbag in the nuts for trashing her. She gets suspended because high-school sucks and Rosie is less than understanding. On the way home, the two fight and as much as I feel for Willow, I think Rosie is getting a raw deal. Rosie could definitely be MORE sensitive to the weight struggles of Willow, but she just lost her sister 6 months ago from a death that could have been avoided.
Meanwhile, tensions brew between Rosie and Willow when Rosie begins getting Lucy’s room packed to donate. Willow thinks 6 months isn’t enough time to let go, but Rosie wants to make space so she an do alterations for the pageants and make some green. This gives Willowdean another reason to hate pageants. I don’t think Rosie is ashamed of Willow the way Willow perceives. I think that’s projection. Rosie just wants the best for her daughter, but is going about it the wrong way.
Rosie also deals with a lot of guilt for having to be essentially a single mother who left her child with her sister to raise. Willow holds some rage about that and calls her out on it, but Rosie defends herself. She says that though she’s sorry she missed some parties, she had to put a roof over everyone’s head. It’s true! Life is difficult sometimes. I’m not dismissing Willow’s teen angst and the bullshit she endures at school, I’m just saying that we don’t really have a main villain. There are assholes and bullies, but all the leads are just flawed people trying to get thru life. The teens are still trying to figure out who they are absent of society’s insanity and that’s a hard road to travel. No judgement on anyone as all these women are just going thru life trying to do the best they can. No one is malicious. They’re just sad.
Things change when Willow goes thru Lucy’s boxes and find that her Aunt filled out an application for Miss Teen Bluebonnet, but never went thru with it. She decides to enter the contest as a protest. Rosie is wary because she doesn’t want Willow to make a mockery of the event. Still, she relents and signs the form. She’s heading up the gala and warns that there will be no special treatment.
Willow’s participation ends up having a catapult effect where more and more girls who don’t fit the conventional beauty standards jump aboard to make it Ellen enters too.
Millie (Maddie Baillio) is an overly upbeat, big girl who get insulted as much as Willow, but tries to look on the bright side. She really wants to win the pageant while fellow-teen/participant Hannah (Bex Taylor-Klaus) and Willow are initially just trying to destroy the show. Willow gets angry when Ellen starts taking the pageant seriously. Things deteriorate further when, Dumplin’ sees a blonde, thin girl from school at her house. The student is having alterations done on her dress and is being complimented by Rosie. When the girl lets it slip that she’s asking Bo to a dance, Dumplin’ gets depressed and self-conscious once more.
It’s unfortunate because only the night before, Bo made a move and kissed her. She’s into it, but it’s her first kiss and she freaks out a bit. Doubt just jams her up and the fact that a gal she sees more worthy than herself is into him, doesn’t help much. The girl needs more self-worth and less tough-as-nails facade. Poor girl! She ends up telling him that it would never work and to her credit she’s honest. She lets her guard down and tells him that she thinks her weight is a factor and that she’s a coward. Bo is a scholar and a gent and someone I would have idolized in high school. He tells her she’s beautiful and to hell with anyone who ever made her feel less than. I don’t care what you look lie, how old you are, how conventionally or unconventionally gorgeous you are, those words should be genuinely spoken to near everyone on the planet at some point in their life. It’s important for people to hear shit like that, but it has to be real. It cant’ be patronizing or filled with ultimatums. Most women and many men have encountered a spouse who tell them to lose weight, gain weight, get a boob job, get ass implants, dress differently, etc. It is so important to personal mental health not deal with that nonsense. Walk away and don’t look back. Don’t spend your life trying to meet the standards of someone else’s ideal person because you’ll end up losing yourself in the process – and it’s a tough journey to get yourself back. So the moral of the story is to find a significant other with the mindset of nice guy Bo. He spends his time building the ego and not deflating it.
Otherwise, what happens is when enough people insult and degrade, a defense mechanism forms. Willow exhibits this perfectly. She does her best when upset to remain an emotionless robot who will not cry. It serves well when faced with adversaries, but often that method just leads to loneliness and depression. When you start treating the people you love with the same callous indifference you do those attacking you, it’s time to do some soul searching. Otherwise, you just push people away or end up abusing those most loyal. It’s never a pretty sight and with poor Bo the scene was especially sad.
Thankfully, Willow is a very insightful girl and begins to step outside her comfort zone and take the pageant more seriously. She rallies Hannah and Millie. They go to a bar where drag queens take to the stage as fabulous Dolly impersonators. The impersonators knew Lucy. One of the performers, Lee (Harold Perrineau) recognizes the resemblance of Willow and calls her backstage. He offers a few words of encouragement and fond memories of her aunt. This puts her in a much better frame of mind and she begins to move full-steam ahead finally showcasing her full fem goddess that was living inside.
When she fails nailing magic as a talent, Rosie makes an exception and approves her for the beauty pageant auditions. I do love Rosie. She’s trying. She doesn’t want to see Willow get humiliated, but she doesn’t know how to properly encourage or support her.
Willow has a few better ideas and enlists the help of the drag queens to help all the unconventional gals put something spectacular together for her, Hannah and Millie. When you surround yourself with people from all walks of life and develop genuine friendships with them, remarkable things happen.
They go no holds barred and despite the few setbacks that every woman endures, the women persevere and come together in a brilliant and terrific way.
I recommend this. It’s a feel good movie that has some very emotional scenes. Though I was never much of a FRIENDS fan, I’ve loved nearly everything Jennifer Aniston did before (LEPRECHAUN 1993) and after (WE ARE THE MILLERS [2013], HORRIBLE BOSSES [2011], THE GOOD GIRL [2002] etc.). She is just a force to be reckoned with and encompasses everything great about girl power. I love her tough, strong style mixed with her sultry, exquisite beauty.
Here she portrays Rosie as just someone trying to get and because of Aniston the character remains a sympathetic one throughout. She could have easily just been a villain, but even during Rosie’s worst missteps, one clearly sees the intent isn’t to hurt Willow. It’s a spectacular performance.
Likewise, Danielle Macdonald is amazing in the titular role. It was a tough part to play because in many scenes, Willow is showing one emotion but feeling another. Macdonald had to convey the truth in her eyes even when Willow was doing her best to stare coldly. It’s the subtle hint of fear or sadness that comes thru which reveals Willow’s state of mind. Quite often, it’s completely contradictory to what she’s outwardly saying. Kudos to Macdonald for keeping the portrayal real, heartfelt and for always making certain the audience knows where her character is.
This is free on NETFLIX. Go watch it if you have a subscription. It’s a female empowerment story that details fem friendship, fem understanding and a fem mindset in a world where the beauty of femininity reigns as Queen. Women and women lovers alike should watch this. I always love movies where women come together in celebration of one another. The beautiful drag dolls just add to this with their wonderful costumes and magnificent send-ups to the greatest fem of all, Miss Dolly Parton.
Scared Stiff Rating: 8/10
