Sometimes, you look up from your phone, from your laptop, from your life and realize that you are in exactly the right place. Or at least, you convince yourself that you are in the right place. For if you admitted to yourself that everything felt utterly wrong and your life was actually a directionless path with the only certainty being its end, well that, that would be simply devastating. So, you question yourself for two seconds, ten seconds at the most, before devoting your attention back to that phone, that laptop, that life. It is, thus, very easy to justify and even become enamored with a lifestyle that makes you miserable. True change, after all, requires a fundamental reevaluation of one’s motivations as well as a complete shifting of one’s perspective. It’s easier to be miserable. It’s easier to walk the same path, on and on without deviation. Brittany decides to run a marathon.
Before that decision though, Brittany Forgler (Jillian Bell) is simply existing in New York City. She floats from late-night party to late arrivals at work. She takes situations and makes people laugh, mostly at her, but why should that matter? She is used to being diminished and so she diminishes herself. It is seemingly the only way to survive in a world that is intent on reducing her to her body type. Thus, when Brittany visits a doctor to scam a prescription of Adderall and his instruction is, instead, to lead a healthier lifestyle, it seems just another indictment from a hostile society. It is the same refrain that she seems to hear from every closing subway door, from every condescending smile: “Brittany is not skinny enough to be worthwhile of respect, much less love.” Making matters worse is the constant reminders that others have achieved the level of esteem that is denied to her. Her roommate, Gretchen (Alice Lee) brags about her life for a living as a social media influencer, and her landlord, Catherine (Michaela Watkins) has several apartments and a successful marriage. It is all enough to make Brittany suspect any act of kindness as an act of pity instead, for everything and everyone is seemingly against her. It is this combative viewpoint that the film stops to examine most closely, prodding at both society’s unfair weight standards and Brittany’s internal obstacles.
It is also here that Jillian Bell shines the most. She brings a brightness that never becomes too saccharine. She has an energy and an enthusiasm that lifts instead of oppresses. Tempering the sweetness is an incredulous cynicism that lives on her upraised eyebrows, constantly questioning the ridiculous situations that she finds herself in. She is world weary without becoming apathetic. She is light-hearted without becoming resorting to empty banter. In her performance, Jillian Bell connects the pathos with the humor, understanding that much of Brittany’s pain informs her playfulness and vice versa. It is this balance that keeps the film from drifting into the all-too familiar territory of the motivational movie. Brittany Runs a Marathon, as its title might indicate, is much too specifically focused on one person to prescribe solutions for everyone else.
This solution, of course, has its own drawbacks, resulting in many of the side characters becoming conventional foils for Brittany to react against. Characters like Catherine, Gretchen, and even potential love interest, Jern (the delightful Utkarsh Ambudkar), have minimal inner lives of their own. Instead, they appear when Brittany needs someone to alternatively, grow closer to or push away. It is a shame, too, that the movie writes and casts a diverse set of characters only to let them languish. Side characters remain primary colors, easily getting lost in the film’s brightly vibrant sets.
Sometimes, you look up and realize that you are in exactly the right place. Or at least you realize that you are, at least, heading in the right direction. Brittany Runs a Marathon is an entertaining movie that never gets too self-important. Though the film certainly stumbles at points (especially with some poorly conceived visual flourishes towards the end), it finishes its runtime, arms raised up in triumph.
