Dumplin

IMDB 6.7 Rotten Tomatoes 76%

One of the biggest struggles at my house is finding a movie that either the whole family could watch or a film that the wife and I can watch together that pulls from my need for action or drama and her need for comedy and reality. So as I was combing through the lists of the best movies you didn’t see of 2018 we came across dumpling. The story of an over-weight daughter of a local beauty queen legend in Texas, caught my eye. This movie was billed as funny and with a heart tugging story of acceptance, for me it had Jennifer Aniston in it and I would watch her mow the neighbor’s lawn because she is so beautiful.

Eagerly we jumped into this movie and met the main characters, Willowdean, Rosie, Millie, and Bo (I told you that this story takes place in Texas didn’t I?) Willowdean the over-weight heroine of the movie is supposed to draw you in with her personality and charm, unfortunately half way through this movie we looked at each other and said “she’s just not very likeable”. The premise on which the movie has placed its entire plot is just doesn’t work. Willowdean is not kind to her friends, hates her mother, and does not like herself. This makes it hard for the viewer to like her either.

The other plot piece of this movie revolves around Willowdean’s love for Dolly Parton and how she meets up with drag queens that also share her affinity for Dolly’s music and personality. Two problems I have here are #1 they are performing drag in a biker bar with very bad lip-syncing to Dolly Parton songs (just poorly done). #2 if you have a movie with this much Dolly Parton, I just kept waiting for the real Dolly to show up, never happens! This movie fails in almost every act and I would say avoid, because you will not watch this movie and say “I will always love you”, I wouldn’t watch it even if you find it in the “Bargain Store” or even if you can watch it at your “9-5”. Dumplin took a dump on an hour and a half of my life