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Amy Schumer shines in empowering romantic comedy 'I Feel Pretty'

<h3 class="briefHead">"I Feel Pretty" - ★ ★ ★ </h3>

Movies have given us way more stories about confidence men than confident women.

Amy Schumer's "I Feel Pretty" redresses this imbalance with a slightly romantic comedy packing a potent, positive personal point for girls and women: a change of attitude can change your life.

Schumer plays Renee Bennett, a frumpy employee at a hole-in-the-wall IT department for the upscale Lily LeClair cosmetics company headquartered on New York's Fifth Avenue.

Renee possesses major self-image issues, constantly reinforced by the thin, beautifully coifed and expensively accessorized model-grade women around her. Looking at her own reflection gives her mirror disappointment.

She hangs out with her two distinctly non-model best buds Jane and Viv (Busy Philipps and Aidy Bryant), desperately trying to generate some male attention on the internet.

While working out in a SoulCycle spin class, Renee gets a bonk on the head and some of her hair ripped out. When she wakes up, she's stunned by what she sees. Herself. Beautiful. Breathtakingly beautiful.

Her appearance hasn't changed. She just imagines it has.

Empowered by her new self-image, Renee boldly invades Lily LeClair's Fifth Avenue HQ, demanding and getting her dream job as the office receptionist.

Elegant and elite CEO Avery LeClair (Michelle Williams, creating an original character worthy of an Oscar nomination) speaks in quiet whispers and lacks the very confidence she sees in Renee.

She and her grandmother, LeClair founder Lily (real-life model-turned-actress Lauren Hutton), recognize Renee possesses what their company needs: a connection to the common shoppers at the nation's Target stores.

Renee practically assaults an unassuming stranger, Ethan (Rory Scovel), into being intrigued by her while waiting in line at a dry cleaners shop. (A man tells Ethan that Renee would be great to have around in a knife fight.)

Then, Renee slowly buys into the glam scam she once abhorred, and begins to forget who she is and who her true friends are.

"I Feel Pretty" marks the mildly auspicious directorial debut of longtime writing partners Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein, the duo who wrote the adequate rom-coms "How To Be Single" and "Never Been Kissed,"

Perhaps unsure of themselves, Kohn and Silverstein allow Michael Andrews' perpetually perky score to overpower their movie and wear out its musical welcome in the first 30 minutes.

Florian Ballhaus' bright, chipper camerawork prevents "I Feel Pretty" from feeling pretty much like a TV sitcom.

This movie belongs to the effervescent, sincere Schumer who excels at portraying the wisecracking, loose floozy traditionally consigned to being the leading lady's comical sidekick.

In her bluntly honest standups, brutally candid rom-com "Trainwreck" and now this movie, Schumer kicks the stereotype out of the supporting ranks and onto the main stage.

How? She simply takes us into her confidence.

<b>Starring:</b> Amy Schumer, Michelle Williams, Lauren Hutton, Aidy Bryant, Busy Philipps, Rory Scovel

<b>Directed by:</b> Abby Kohn, Marc Silverstein

<b>Other:</b> An STXfilms release. Rated PG-13 for language, partial nudity and sexual situations. 110 minutes

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