Charming DUFF a Funny High School Jaunt
Bianca (Mae Whitman) is navigating through her final days of High School with apparent ease. She’s best friends with two of the student body’s more popular members, Casey (Bianca A. Santos) and Jess (Skyler Samuels), edits the newspaper and gets along with snobby clique mavens like Madison (Bella Thorne) and Neanderthal football jocks like childhood friend Wesley (Robbie Amell) alike. Her only real issue is that she can’t seem to say three words in succession to sexy guitar-playing crooner Toby (Nick Eversman), her crush so all-consuming she becomes nothing more than twitter-patted mush every time she’s around him.
PHOTO: CBS Films
Everything changes one Wednesday when Wesley nonchalantly reveals Bianca is nothing more than Casey and Jess’ DUFF, a.k.a. their ‘Designated Ugly Fat Friend,’ the nice, approachable nobody that makes them look even better whenever she’s in their presence. She’s of course furious, but the more the Senior thinks about it the more she wants to bust out and make a singular name for herself amongst her classmates. Conspiring with Wesley, she hatches a plan to break out of the DUFF-zone, discovering things about herself and her friends – as well as inadvertently making an enemy of the vindictive Madison – that she didn’t know in the process.
If you threw Juno, Mean Girls and She’s All That into a blender you’d probably end up with something relatively similar to The DUFF, a well-intentioned and relatively charming High School coming-of-age comedy that’s frothy and effervescent enough to entertain but not inspired or creative enough to become memorable. At the same time, Whitman is sensational as Bianca, while Amell has a sexy, easygoing aura that’s legitimately pleasing. The pair together are attractively three-dimensional, the movie doing a much better job crafting their relationship than I anticipated it would be before watching.
Based on Kody Keplinger’s best-selling book, director Ari Sandel and screenwriter Josh A. Cagan (Bandslam) do a nice job crafting a well-rounded, realistic teenage world, taking things to a comedic extreme, yes, but doing so in ways that still feels grounded and authentic. They also don’t shy away from some serious hot button topics, most notably the rise of cyber bullying in the social media age, Bianca finding herself the target of a heinous attack that would leave most destroyed, wallowing in tearfully depressed despair.
PHOTO: CBS Films
That the movie doesn’t entirely know what to do with those issues once they are brought up is a problem, as is the fact that, sadly, the filmmakers go in a rather rote and routing direction as far as Bianca and Wesley’s friendship is concerned. While the patter between schoolmates is giddily genuine, the way problems are ultimately dealt with and resolved are strictly by-the-numbers, the film stooping to sitcom level platitudes just as it should be fearlessly forging its own path. The last 30 minutes are frustratingly conventional, the ultimate resolutions commonplace to the point they border on mundane.
Thankfully, every time it looks like the film is going to fly off the rails never to recover Whitman is there to save the day. She’s a refreshing spunky sparkplug continually providing energy and excitement right when it is needed the most. So good in The Perks of Being a Wallflower, such a divine presence on the television series “Parenthood,” the actress is finally given the spotlight she’s long so richly deserved, making the most of it every single second of the picture’s 100-minute running time. Whitman deserves to be a star; here’s hoping her tour de force efforts here put her on the track to becoming one.
I have every reason to believe The DUFF is one of those comedies that could slowly grow on me over time to where I can come close to completely forgiving it for its shortcomings thus placing it on a higher plateau than I obviously do now. It has pluck, intelligence and heart, centering things on two main characters who are more sophisticated than the majority of these types of features normally revolve around. Most of all, it offers up a splendid performance from the gloriously talented Whitman, and as a vehicle for her the film is positively wondrous.
Review reprinted courtesy of the SGN in Seattle
Film Rating: 2½ (out of 4)
