Beautiful Girl (film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Beautiful Girl
Directed by	Douglas Barr
Produced by	Mark Winemaker
Starring	Marissa Jaret Winokur Mark Consuelos
Music by	Eric Allaman
Distributed by	ABC Family
Release date(s)	2003
Running time	80 min.
Country	U.S.A.
Language	English
IMDb profile

Beautiful Girl is a 2003 film directed by Douglas Barr and starring Marissa Jaret Winokur and Mark Consuelos. It is a story about Becca Wasserman, a plus-sized girl who has a great singing talent.

[edit] Plot

The story begins as Becca and her fiance' Adam Lopez (Consuelos) announce to her mother Amanda (Fran Drescher), her sister, and her Nana that they are getting married. Amanda begins to plan the wedding with or without Becca's enthusiasm. Becca and Adam agree to open a credit card with the sole purpose of paying for the wedding, as Becca is a teacher and Adam is working to restore a local bar so money is very tight.

At a bridal dress shop, Becca runs into a former high school rival Libby who proceeds to insult her size, her hair, and her family. In doing so, Becca discovers Libby is competing in a local beauty pageant (Miss Sewickley), and the prize in the next round of competition (Miss Metropolitan Pittsburgh) is a free trip to Hawaii. Becca wants the prize for a honeymoon. Her mother is very much against the idea due to Becca's size, although she never comes right out and says so. She pushes for Becca's sister to enter instead, as it is discussed that Becca was always the more successful one, and her sister "is doing nothing with her life, but shopping."

At her teaching job, Becca tries to impart a strong sense of self on her students, and even has to discourage a young pre-teen girl from dancing and dressing like a pop star during a simple music lesson. She and a fellow teacher have also been putting together a proposal for grant money that would allow the school to stage a talent show. Her boss later tells Becca she has won teacher of the month for her efforts.

Becca competes in the local pageant (Miss Squirrel Hill) and dazzles the judges with her personality and song during the talent portion. Her sister helps design the outfits, and creates a memorable swimsuit resembling a squirrel complete with fuzzy tail. Libby is in the audience during the competition, and when Becca places second, she has the winner disqualified for having a family member on the panel of judges. Amanda is also in the audience, despite her protests to Becca earlier that she would not come. A woman next to Amanda makes comments on Becca's size, and Amanda leaves in embarrassment. Becca receives a call during family dinner that she is the winner by default, but decides not to tell her mother because of her disapproval. Nana finds out, and tells Becca she should go for it.

When Becca arrives at the orientation for Miss Metropolitan, Libby tells Becca she wanted her there to make sure there was less competition. A few of the other competitors give Becca advice on hair, make-up, posture, poise, etc. Becca goes overboard and uses her credit card to buy a complete makeover and new clothes for the pageant. When she returns home, Adam begins to notice the changes and is unhappy. Becca's sister tries to show her new designs for the gowns, but Becca is more concerned with practicing her stance in front of a mirror, and "finding her best side." She also lies to her sister that the clothes she bought were actually supplies for her students. Later that night, Adam finds Becca in the bathroom plucking her brows, and is disgusted by all the beauty supplies she has purchased.

The next day, Becca arrives home to find Adam, her sister, her mother, and a friend from work staging what they call an intervention. Amanda discovered Becca was still competing when Becca's sister accidentally let it slip. Becca refuses to believe that anything is wrong, and continues to adapt her looks. Adam shakes her up with a decleration she is not the same woman he fell in love with.

With some unexpected help, Becca realizes she has been trying to conform to make herself fit in. She changes her outfits and hairstyle back, and even becomes friends with Libby in the process when she discovers Libby's mother has been the source of her anger. She also makes friends with a young woman who grew up in an Amish household and left during Rumspringa, who is only competing to try and win the scholarship money. She helps Becca see how much she appreciates her family, even though they may be overprotective sometimes.

Becca, Libby, and three others make it into the final five. During the talent competition, Becca again wows the audience with her song about being Beautiful and always being true to who you are. Her family and some of the students see the performance, Adam watches from a bar.

Becca is named second runner-up, and her family is very proud of her. During a newspaper interview, Amanda states, after she sees more of the clothing designs, that she is proud of both her daughters. Becca returns to the bar and asks for Adam's forgiveness, and they kiss.