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‘Brittany Runs A Marathon’ Promotes a Weight Loss Fantasy
The film markets itself as a progressive counterpoint to diet culture. It’s not.
Note: contains spoilers for “Brittany Runs A Marathon” and discussion of eating disorders, including specific restrictive behaviors.
Brittany Runs A Marathon has all the makings of a great film. It stars the preternaturally funny and charismatic Jillian Bell. Its supporting cast is stellar, including standouts Michaela Watkins, Lil Rel Howery, and Utkarsh Ambudkar. And its writer-director, Paul Downs Colaizzo, is a celebrated playwright.
For the most part, all that promise pays off: The dialogue is well-written; the jokes are frequent and funny. But Brittany Runs A Marathon, which was released in theaters late last month, overreaches, billing itself as a counterpoint to diet culture. What it delivers is much less benign.
Its title character, Brittany, is funny. She’s irresponsible. She’s poorly dressed. She’s out of shape. She’s a proud hedonist, eating, drinking, and smoking whatever comes across her path. She doesn’t care about her health. She is grateful for whatever sexual attention she gets, though at 28, she has never had a real relationship. Her excessive behaviors are all a cover for the deep brokenness inside her.
In other words, Brittany is a caricature of a fat failure, her body a manifestation of her many derelictions.
While thin people’s eating disorders are cause for concern, fat people’s eating disorders are seen as culturally mandatory — even inspiring.
Brittany sees a doctor, initially to simply scam some Adderall. When the doctor tells her to lose weight, she reacts with shock, dismay, and shame, as if this is the first time someone has suggested to her that she is fat. (Many fat people hear this at every visit with a doctor. Given that her father was also fat, it strains credulity to suggest that this would be the first time someone suggested she should lose weight.) The doctor cites elevated blood pressure, a high resting heart rate, possible sleep apnea, and a risk of fatty liver disease.
