Okay, so it's an actresses job to play people who may look alike yet have different aspects to their personality. Rikki Lake had a great start with "Hairspray", and her character of Tracy was certainly a character that deserved a lot of praise for her confidence and her refusal to bow to society's pressure of being thin. She got the hunk simply because of her zest for life and her refusal to let weight issues stand in her way. It was fun watching her take on the class witch as well, so when compared to her character here, it seems as if Lake has regressed rather than grow in her choices for a different role.
While it's believable that a heavyset girl can find true love with someone of a lesser size, it would never be in the way the teleplay is done here. She becomes obsessed with the handsome Craig Sheffer whom she sees ice skating and later finds works as a conductor on her regular train route. What starts as a routine crush becomes rather disturbing and a bad precedent for young girls, especially since her obsession gets more serious and worse, he leads her on even though he has a fiancee she knows about. Hope the fiancee doesn't have any bunnies!
Father John Karlen marries the beautiful Betty Buckley in a strange scene in a grocery store, and both dad and the new stepmom indicate worry over Lake's weight. For Buckley, size eight is enough, and as polite she is to Lake (certainly no Velma Von Tussle), it's obvious that they'll never be shopping together and getting their hair done like Tracy and mom Edna did in "Hairspray".
Nada Despotovich, as Lake's best friend, gets a few good lines (such as her description of department store mirrors that they don't work because they show things as they are), and Paul Benedict of "The Jeffersons" is very funny as Lake's undertaker boss. but no matter how you try to justify the plot developments, it really doesn't work. It's actually destructive to its efforts to give a realistic perception to vulnerable young girls and ladies that this is the way to land a guy.
I've also never seen the Seventh Avenue and 14th Street Station look so clean, let alone as big and room filled as it is here, indicating that a fake set was built without regards to reality. I guess since the character of Grace is in her own fantasy world, then New York City should be a fantasy world as well. In reality, nobody could get away with the things that Lake does here, and that makes the movie really painful to watch at times.
While it's believable that a heavyset girl can find true love with someone of a lesser size, it would never be in the way the teleplay is done here. She becomes obsessed with the handsome Craig Sheffer whom she sees ice skating and later finds works as a conductor on her regular train route. What starts as a routine crush becomes rather disturbing and a bad precedent for young girls, especially since her obsession gets more serious and worse, he leads her on even though he has a fiancee she knows about. Hope the fiancee doesn't have any bunnies!
Father John Karlen marries the beautiful Betty Buckley in a strange scene in a grocery store, and both dad and the new stepmom indicate worry over Lake's weight. For Buckley, size eight is enough, and as polite she is to Lake (certainly no Velma Von Tussle), it's obvious that they'll never be shopping together and getting their hair done like Tracy and mom Edna did in "Hairspray".
Nada Despotovich, as Lake's best friend, gets a few good lines (such as her description of department store mirrors that they don't work because they show things as they are), and Paul Benedict of "The Jeffersons" is very funny as Lake's undertaker boss. but no matter how you try to justify the plot developments, it really doesn't work. It's actually destructive to its efforts to give a realistic perception to vulnerable young girls and ladies that this is the way to land a guy.
I've also never seen the Seventh Avenue and 14th Street Station look so clean, let alone as big and room filled as it is here, indicating that a fake set was built without regards to reality. I guess since the character of Grace is in her own fantasy world, then New York City should be a fantasy world as well. In reality, nobody could get away with the things that Lake does here, and that makes the movie really painful to watch at times.