Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
Willowdean (“Dumplin” to her mom) is a confident, plus-size teenager who loves Dolly Parton, pool time, singing loudly in the car, and eating whatever she feels like. Her mother Rosie, on the other hand, is a former beauty queen who lives for workouts, diets, and running the Miss Teen Bluebonnet pageant. So when the two hit a rough patch, Willowdean signs up for the very pageant her mother runs, hoping to embarrass Rosie, but ends up on a journey she never quite saw coming.
Directed by Anne Fletcher, and written by Kristin Hahn, and Julie Murphy, ‘Dumplin’ stars Danielle Macdonald as the primary teen protagonist, while Jennifer Aniston mom plays her former beauty queen mother. Willowdean is shown to be raised more by her mother’s sister, Lucy Dickson (Hilliary Begley), as Rosie is a single mom working at a nursing home and spending the rest of her time organizing her town’s pageant.
Willowdean doesn’t just sign up for the Miss Teen Bluebonnet pageant to spite her mother, but also as a way to protest beauty standards. Her best friend Ellen (Odeya Rush) signs up alongside her in support. And in a small twist, another plus-size classmate, Millie (Maddie Baillio), also decides to participate, along with an emo teen, Bekah (Dove Cameron), who is there to make a statement against the patriarchy.
But here’s the deal: never once throughout Dumplin’ do we see Rosie say anything nasty or mean to Willowdean about her body. If anything, it is Willow who feels embarrassed by her mother’s pageant world and is insecure about her weight, despite putting on a brave face and claiming not to care about her appearance. And through the film we know nothing of Willowdean, except that she loves Dolly Parton songs, and has an attitude problem.
Maddie Baillio, who plays Millie, another plus-size teen and a completely cheerful, optimistic girl with a knack for singing, is far more likable. In fact, Baillio is absolutely endearing as Millie; her smile and cheerful demeanor are infectious. Willowdean, on the other hand, is disappointingly mean to her at first, discouraging her from participating in the pageant. And when Millie begins taking the pageant seriously, Willow goes, “we are not trying to win.” Okay girl, you don’t want to win, that’s your choice. Why are you policing everyone else?
In fact, Willowdean even insults her best friend Ellen, saying she’s too skinny to understand her and that she would have an easy time winning pageants. It’s one of many moments that make her hard to like, I would’ve much preferred a version of Dumplin’ that focused on a group of misfits taking on the pageant, instead of just her.
Thankfully, the second half of Dumplin’ does give the other girls some of the spotlight, and their eventual friendship is genuinely sweet to watch. Willowdean shows a bit of growth too, even if her character continues to be annoying and does ironic things. Like at one point, Willow even asks her mother to bend pageant rules for her, despite setting out to rebel against the whole system.
Jennifer Aniston, meanwhile, plays Rosie as an interestingly understated supporting character; she is a grounded, hard-working single mother trying to balance two very different lives: one as a nurse, the other as a glamorous pageant organizer. Beneath it all, she’s simply doing her best to keep things together, not some over-the-top, judgmental pageant snob.
Overall, this was a watchable film, but it’s quite unrealistic and far-fetched.
Watch Dumplin’ on Netflix.
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