Brittany Runs a Marathon

Brittany Runs a Marathon gives Bell a lot of smart comic business, but her character's humour is signalled from the first as a way of deflecting pain - and is often funny because it's so mistimed that the people around her don't get the joke.

It can't quite get itself tonally right...it didn't gel for me, but there are individual moments that are quite funny.

Bell is terrific in the title role and the film as a whole is a confident combination of the amiable and the uncompromising.

The trailer suggests a wacky DayGlo remix of Amy Schumer's body-conscious comedy I Feel Pretty, but don't believe it. This film, a debut from the writer-director Paul Downs Colaizzo, is made of sterner stuff...

There's a note of truth in Bell's finely tuned performance as a character whose insecurities have calcified over the years, hardening her to genuine goodwill, which she frequently misreads as pity.

The strength of Brittany Runs a Marathon is that it doesn't claim to capture a universal experience. It tells one woman's story -- and it tells it well.

…although writer/director Paul Downs Colaizzo’s film deals with serious issues including depression, self-image, obesity and substance abuse, it’s also a sunny, satisfying crowd-pleaser that gets a huge lift from Bell’s winning performance…’

For anyone who has suffered through endless fad diets with zero results -- this movie will change your life for the better.

Completely irreverent and inspiring, Brittany Runs a Marathon will make you laugh and cry — sometimes at the same time.

A warm, funny, beautiful reminder that even though we all have stuff that needs to be worked through, we can all change our lives for the better.