Starring: Mae Whitman, Robbie Amell, Bella Thorne, Bianca A. Santos, Skyler Samuels, Romany Malco, Nick Eversman, Chris Wylde, Ken Jeong, Alison Janney
Distributor: Roadshow Films
Runtime: 100 mins. Reviewed in Apr 2015
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Would anybody be drawn in to see a film which was called The DUFF? Seems rather unlikely! And even when it is explained that DUFF stands for “Designated Ugly Fat Friend”? Possibly not. But, the producers did make the film and here it is.
Mae Whitman is very good as Bianca, the DUFF. She doesn’t realise it at first but as she explains to the audience when we initially see her first with her friends, the attractive Jess and Casey, she points out that everybody greets them and seems to miss out on her, or not notice her, or notice her and ignore her. This is especially the case with Madison (Bella Thorne) who fancies herself as the most attractive girl in the school, claims, when it suits her, Wes (Robbie Amell), the football captain and school jock, as her on-again, off-again boyfriend. Madison informs everybody that life, even at school, is a preparation for her life as a celebrity on Reality Television.
Despite the looks, she is pretty clueless about life and relationships. Which may remind us that this was the 90s equivalent of The DUFF, Clueless, Alicia Silverstone and friends at high school, making a mess of life at times but trying to put it in order. And then, almost a decade later, came Mean Girls, with Rachel McAdams as one of the meanest persecuting poor Lindsay Lohan until she joined them. Perhaps every decade has to have its high school mean girls movie.
Bianca is shorter than her friends, with the touch of the tubby which makes her self-conscious about the Fat in DUFF. But Wes assures her as he drops the title on her that it actually means the character in any situation who is overlooked but is approached to get access to the high-flying characters. Bianca has her own life to live, is very good at school work, has to cope with her mother (Alison Janney in yet another cleverly humorous role) who, after being left by her husband, has discovered the five stages (without open acknowledgement of Elizabeth Kubler-Ross) of grieving and incorporates them into seven’s seminars dealing with stress, satirised a little, but having their place.
She also works on the school magazine, edited by Ken Jeong, an amusing performance, much, much lower key than how we found him in such films as The Hangover series. He commissions Bianca to write an article on her personal, deeply felt responses to the Homecoming Dance.
Surprisingly influenced by peer pressure, Bianca alienates her two close friends, who really are friends. She also tangles with Wes who, in fact from the childhood, has been the boy next door. While he is a jock, he is a sympathetic character, finds Madison particularly waring, is much more content chatting with Bianca.
Bianca has a crush on musician, Toby, but is awkward in talking with him. She and Wes make a deal, she helping with his studies so that he can resume his football captaincy and get sufficient grades for graduation. He offers to help her to be more sociable, with a long sequence where they go to a store and she tries on numerous dresses – only to find much later that Madison’s toadying friend is taking video of Bianca, the clothes and talking about the boyfriend. The girl does the same when Bianca takes Wes to her favourite place, and more video. As might be expected, the video makes its blatant appearance during the Homecoming Dance. Which leads into the later development of principles against cyberbullying.
In case anyone is upset because our heroine, Bianca, alienates herself from her two good friends, she does come to her senses, thank goodness. She doesn’t want to get to the dance, but her mother urges her, and there is the almost-but-not-quite ending that we expected!
Older reviewers and older audiences will find that this period of their lives is long, long gone!
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