Customer Reviews

Disfigured

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This was one amazing film, and one everyone should see - fit, fat or in-between. It brings up a lot of interesting subjects and surprised me in that early on it becomes clear this is not a movie about making overweight women feel proud of themselves. It also doesn't really answer any questions - what it does is make you think: about how you view yourself and how you view other people, and this includes the overweight as well as the underweight. And still it was about so much more. I had the pleasure of meeting cast and crew at Cinequest in San Jose and this was one of my favorite films of the festival.

I wish there were more movies like this: interesting, engaging, sensitive, well written, well acted and about every day life. No explosions, no special effects, just real people and real life, with an emotional impact and characters we care about. The main theme, body image and relationships, is a timely one.

The actors were real. The story is real. The film-makers tie together two seemingly opposite women's struggles and show very clearly how it is all the same thing, at the end of the day: fat, anorexic, "normal" (whatever that means), no matter where a woman falls on the continuum, the body dissatisfaction is the same, and it's all-pervasive and all-encompassing. I would not go so far as to call the actors' performances brilliant; they are amateurs, in my opinion, and their performances are less than polished. But they're just amateur, they aren't painful to watch, and the film comes together nicely despite the seeming inexperience of the cast, and tells an important story which I think should be required material at all high schools and universities. I'd say elementary schools, but there is a sex scene that's pretty visual...speaking of which, as a woman whose body looks a lot like the actress who starred in the scene, I want to say that I am happy that they showed the actual scene and didn't cut to a more acceptable view of a fat woman, meaning, as covered up as possible. I am not a big fan of sex scenes, as they go, because I would really prefer to keep my sex private and vice versa, but if I have to see skinny people's nakedness in the average PG-13 movie that I see in the theaters these days, then for once I am glad to have seen some fat people over-share in that department, too. You know, equal-opportunity inappropriateness. But aside from that, anyhow, I think this was a great film.

Disfigured is a powerful drama about women and men who struggle with weight issues. Weight is an issue for so many of us. There is phenomenal pressure especially on women to stay thin; and of course there are the medical problems that can come with being overweight. In addition, there are medical problems and other issues that are associated with anorexia. Disfigured does a splendid job of showcasing the lives, the everyday struggles, and the emotional roller coaster ride people can go on when they try to come to terms with body image issues, weight, self-esteem, self-acceptance, anger, fear and so much more. The acting is terrific despite the fact that these are not very well known actors; they certainly had me convinced they were real people and not just actors! The plot moves along at a very good pace and I was never once bored. The cinematography is also excellent.

When the action starts, we quickly meet the overweight members of a fat acceptance self-help group; they want to change societal attitudes so that there will be less prejudice against overweight people. One afternoon an anorexic woman, Darcy (Staci Lawrence) comes; she truly thinks she is overweight and she wants to join the group. She is quickly voted out except by one member, Lydia (Deidra Edwards) who thinks maybe Darcy should be allowed to join the group.

Although she was voted out of the group, Darcy wants to help Lydia advertise her new fat acceptance walking group. Lydia is taken by surprise; she's not sure what to make of Darcy. However, Darcy is very eager to make a friend; and the good natured Lydia makes friends with Darcy. It isn't too long after the walking group starts that Lydia meets Bob (Ryan C. Benson); Lydia and Bob start a "no strings attached" affair and it's very interesting to see their relationship develop.

Eventually Lydia and Darcy become closer with each woman sincerely trying their best to help the other with weight and body image issues. Darcy stays over at Lydia's place to keep a watchful eye on Lydia so that she won't overeat without being noticed; and Lydia asks Darcy for "anorexia lessons" when she becomes involved with Bob. These two women want desperately to help each other confront their deepest psychological fears and demons so that they can get stronger and no longer suffer. All along the way, Lydia and Darcy confront issues including anger, fear and the need to let feelings "in" instead of just letting feelings "out."

Will Lydia and Darcy conquer their demons and gain more control over their weight and body image issues? What about Lydia and Bob--will they stay together or will something eventually cause them to go their separate ways? What about the tension between Darcy and her mother--how will they manage to keep things under control? No plot spoilers here, folks--watch and find out!

The DVD comes with a plethora of bonus features; and that's terrific. There's an optional running commentary with Staci Lawrence, Deidra Edwards, Ryan C. Benson and director Glenn Gers; three deleted scenes; a "behind the scenes" featurette; outtakes and bloopers; a featurette on fat acceptance and eating disorders; the theatrical trailer and more!

Disfigured shines as a brilliant film that focuses on incredibly important social and psychological issues regarding body image, weight, self-acceptance, anger and so much more. I highly recommend this film.

Allowing the audience a peek inside the very private world of compulsive overeating, anorexia and the accompanying thought processes that go along with each makes this movie something very special...


If you eat food you should see this movie.

I would have given this movie 3 stars if I hadn't waited 10 days to write this review. The fact that I haven't been able to get it out of my head and now desire to watch it again tells me that it is better than I initially perceived. I am a recovering anorexic, so it is obvious why I bought this movie. It is thought provoking and I believe very artistically made. I think it would make an awesome play on stage.

The reason I give it four stars instead of five is that I think the film unpolished and the acting isn't as rich as I would've liked and there was a sex scene that was much more explicit than necessary. That being said, this is an independant film (which I love) and I thought it accomplished the purpose that was intended. I especially liked how it incorporated the background into making the whole "feel" of the characters' personalities come forth--the reflection of the anorexic's darkness, the black, white and grey, the angular and pointed edges, the lack of any color, spark, or even joy at all in her life. In contrast, the overweight woman had bright color and objects surrounding her that represented her actually "living" and experiencing all that life has to offer. She had sexuality and embraced it (although made all the wrong choices expressing it)---there was a lot this movie expressed visually along with the character development. One thing I must say is although they say the anorexic is recovering, she didn't express any recovery signs that I could see.

This film spoke a lot about the issues facing women of all sizes. I don't know much about being overweight, but I do know what it is like to be a woman in this weight-obsessed world--and like the anorexic in the movie, I always "feel" awfully fat. As an anorexic all of my adolescent and adult life, I thought the portrayal of the anorexic was extremely well done. Of course as with any movie, the anorexic character did exibit a lot of the stereotypical thoughts about anorexics and anorexia in general, but of course that cannot be helped in a 90 minute movie. I was pleased the movie showed the strained relationship between the adult anorexic and her parents--especially her mother. The friendship between the two main characters was intriguing. I was a bit put-off by the "anorexic lessons", because most anorexics would be offended that anyone would think that they could just become anorexic because they decide to do so. That is not true, but I believe the issue brought up in the movie is very relevent to the thoughts of the lay public concerning anorexia.

There was a scene in the movie that intensely brought the friendship between the two young women in the movie together in a very moving and profound way. The dialogue in that moment brought the whole message of the movie together and it made understanding both of the characters in relation to the world around them manifest in a way I rarely see in film.

Finally, fair warning...there is a graphic sex scene that shows a lot of nudity. I will watch this movie again, but I will not watch that scene again. In fact if I could do it, I would delete that part from my own dvd. I understand the reason for the scene, but I believe it detracted from the message of the movie. The movie would have been much better if it would have left us to our own imagination as far as that is concerned.

I do recommend this film to adults only because of the sex. If you fast forward or remove the sex then I recommend this movie to teens as well.

Provocative, engaging, inspiring. Wow!!! I found this movie thoroughly enjoyable. I was laughing and crying as I related to the characters in this movie. I applaud the cast and crew for making such a fine feature film.

Disfigured DVD Review
1 Disc (2008)

"Disfigured" was written and directed by Glenn Gers and stars Deidra Edwards and Staci Lawrence. Deidra Edwards is Lydia dealing with being fat and Staci Lawrence is Darcy dealing with anorexia and they form an unlikely friendship after Darcy tries to join a Fat Acceptance Group since she believes she is fat. This is a must-see movie for any woman (or man for that matter) who has had any issues with body image.

This is a shockingly amazing story coming from a male writer/director. Glenn Gers really captured these women as fully rounded characters in an intimate and real way. He gives equal focus to overweight and underweight people bringing the whole message back to body image and the fact that people need to be comfortable in their own skin before they can change or they will never be happy.

The script is very accurate to how women feel about body image and does an excellent job of giving both sides a lot of time and making sure both women get to know the other's problems more closely. Being overweight or underweight both have implications for affecting one's life health-wise, in relationships, at work, and especially how one feels when they are alone. Their friendship and discussions help both of them begin to move toward trying to be healthier people overall without worrying about body image. Anorexia very much is a dark, painful journey that Darcy does a great job explaining emotionally in her face and words, but appears more functional than a real person would be so the viewer has to understand that while she got the emotion dead-on, it really is a lot more painful to watch physically than she could demonstrate without living it. Lydia is actually a healthier person than Darcy though it might not look that way on the outside. She is emotionally stronger and more connected to others and has the capacity to love than Darcy has lost along with all other enthusiasm for life and food.

The movie does not leave the viewer with concrete solutions other than women apparently need to get together and talk about body image to learn to accept themselves before they can change themselves (anorexics seeking therapy, fat people committing to better health, etc). The major downfall of the movie is the low budget leading to lots of handheld shaky camera which is occasionally distracting and the lighting sometimes is so bright that it looks like an actress is standing against a white background when they are in a living room with furniture in it. The sound also gets a little hard to hear sometimes.

DVD Extras:

This DVD is packed full of extras. First off, there is director and cast commentary with Glenn Gers, Deidra Edwards, Staci Lawrence, and Ryan C. Benson which is very informative about background information and facts. There is a Behind-The-Scenes feature showing off Venice Beach starting off with the story of two overweight people wanting to walk and the story developing from that and online message boards drama. It was a challenging film to shoot on the beach with lots of unwanted background noise that had to be weeded out and it was a very hot, humid shoot with lots of "night" indoor shots being taken in the daytime with black plastic over windows making it hard on the actors. Unfortunately the interview taken with Staci Lawrence is apparently in a noisy night club or something because it is very difficult to hear her. This entire feature length film was shot in fifteen days!

There is a Fat Acceptance and Eating Disorders featurette explaining what actual fat acceptance movements are about and how he took it a bit farther to make an argument. Glenn Gers hosts this portion and recommends a book title "Rethinking Thin" as a good source of information and admonishes anyone from thinking anorexia is an attractive idea before jumping to an interview segment between some experts in the field to provide some of the psychology behind the ideas from the film. One group fights for civil rights of fat people and discusses the discrimination in the workplace and elsewhere. They emphasize the movie's message of education and communication for advancement in solving these problems. A "weight neutral" perspective is like a foreign language. Exploring anorexia, they brought forth some symptoms that weren't shown in the film that Darcy actually would have been experiencing like coldness, hiding one's body in bulky clothes, and a slowing down of metabolism and energy except during compulsive exercise. Darcy was a very functional anorexic in this movie and her body was shown a lot more for the viewer than actually affected people would have. The experts here vow that it is a disease one can recover from though it is widely believed that isn't the case. It is a very informative and helpful.

The outtakes and improvisations are very funny and the deleted scenes were very informative showing more symptoms for Darcy and more of both main characters' childhood history.

I got bored with this movie and could not even finish it. There is ignorance on both sides of the fence, whether in regards to the anorexic woman or the obese woman who doesnt understand you dont have to starve yourself to be thin. There is even a scene where the obese woman announces a fat acceptance walking group to her support group, and she is ridiculed because apparently walking means that you are caving into society's ideals of beauty. I guess being active and eating healthy means you hate yourself, according to those idiots. At times the movie seemed poorly filmed and the dialogue was overdone or overly boring.

I loved this film. It exceeded my expectations. As someone who has been both anorexic and quite large in my lifetime, I could both relate to the film on a personal level, and also really appreciate it on a more social/political level as well.

I found the characters, as well as the actors who portrayed them, for the most part very believable with minor reservations. I think the only reservation I had on the believability scale was a bit with Darcy, the anorexic main character, I found a bit too 'with it' and bold and sure of herself. It's been my experience, both personally and of other anorexic women, that sufferers of anorexia tend to be a bit more unsure of themselves, plagued with self-doubt, not quite so confident in themselves or their abilities. But overall, I found the film realistic and approachable.

I also thought that it really addressed a lot of important issues, namely that both fat people and anorexic people actually have quite a lot in common, and by these two women getting to know and understand each other, a lot of myths get debunked that each one has about the other, and the viewer might have about them as well. We learn, through the growing friendship between these two women, that, fat or thin, they're both just regular people, and that they struggle with a lot of the same issues as each other and as everyone else does.

For me, one of the most important aspects of this film was the unapologetic love scene between two of the plus-sized characters/actors. This is both a love scene and a sex-scene; romantic and carnal at the same time. Its lighting is softly pinkish, but their act is both loving and animal, and they are naked and glorious in all their fleshy selves, fat rolls and big bellies and breasts and thighs and butts right out there for all to see. The scene is interspersed with shots of people in a fat activism group discussing, quite frankly, what they like about sex, and the difficulties of wanting and enjoying sex in a world where people are disgusted with their fat bodies. It shows us, in a very unapologetic way, that fat people have the same needs and wants as every other person, for love and sex, and that it is natural and normal and there is nothing disgusting about it. Fat people are made, in this society, to feel ashamed for their appetites, and this scene, and this film in general, portray the satisfaction of appetite as natural and normal and, if anything, it's the denial of appetite that seems disturbed and stunted.

I would highly recommend this film to anyone who has 'food issues' or anyone who has prejudice toward people of size, though prejudicial people might be disgusted by it. It's an eye-opening film that shows us, above all, that people are just people, regardless of how we look. None of us are perfect and all of us have some sort of hang-up. It's just that some people's hang-ups end up being displayed in a more physically obvious way than other people's, on the canvas of the body.

One more addendum: The plus-sized main character, Lydia, has a love interest in this film, a fellow plus-sized person named Bob, who is played by Ryan Benson. Interestingly, Ryan Benson was the winner on season 1 of "The Biggest Loser." I've watched 'Loser' off and on since its inception, and throughout that time I've been impressed with their results but often wondered at the ability of their contestants to keep off the impressive weight that they lose. They lose weight so rapidly and have to devote so much time and energy to the task, that I've often thought that it would be impossible for them to keep the weight off long-term because it's just too demanding a regimen for anyone to maintain for life. Now I know. Ryan may not be all the way back to his pre-'Loser' weight, but he's definitely a big guy again. I have to say I was pleased to see that he hasn't let his weight gain stop him from living his life. He obviously has an acting career going for him and he isn't hiding in a hole somewhere feeling ashamed for 'failing'. Good for him!