Senteur As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Bessie Smyth Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Zandra The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

severine rubis I watched again this movie recently.The story is commonplace.A girl whose name is Grace but who works as a make up assistant in a mortuary is overweight and sees one day a boy she finds handsome.That is love at first sight! She is immediately in love but she doesn't know that the boy ,Rob who is a subway conductor is not free.He lives with a pushy girl,olivia but he is engaged..so Grace imagines she will catch Rob like she wants..she is determined to change her life and takes her vacation to spy Rob..Actually she stalks him and one day she invites him at a cafeteria..the young handsome man is so nice that he cannot refuse.How could he refuse a banana split covered with hot chocolate and he takes advantage of the situation in my opinion because he likes Grace but she takes care of him too..She does so much for him..But that is the problem..Grace does everything for Rob and she is always TOO MUCH.She eats too much,she likes chocolate too much,she cooks all the time.And she is fat!! This isn't a good teaching for overweight girls who suffer because of their body image..actually we can see Grace eat,very often..too often! And Rob falls quickly in love with her but once his fiancée is back,will he defend Grace?no .He will run away leaving Grace beaten by his fiancée.i cannot swallow the end..Rob tells Grace that he LOves her and to live with him in the subway..as if nothing had happened.Sure he likes her but ..it is a bit easy..In reality everything is EASY in this movie..The attitude of Rob,the stalking,the dinners at candlelight,the romance..so easy that nobody can believe it can be true especially in real life.Fat girls don't catch boys so easily..and not thin boys..it's romance! A pleasant movie to watch when there is nothing else on TV or to dream a while..

dwr246 I have mixed feelings about this movie. On the one hand, I love to see the underdog win, especially as she is portrayed in this movie. On the other, the movie rushes to a close that leaves many loose ends, and ultimately makes some of the action seem a bit immoral.Grace (Ricki Lake) is the overweight daughter of widowed Al (John Karlen). As the movie opens, Al is marrying Wanda (Betty Buckley), a woman who seems to delight in talking about Grace's weight problem in euphemistic . Al seems oblivious to how hurtful his new wife is to his daughter. Grace works as a make up artist for a funeral home, an irony which is not lost on her. On her commute to and from work every day, she sees a handsome subway conductor (Craig Sheffer), whom she pines after. In spite of all the unpleasantry in her life, and a best friend, Keri (Nada Despotovich), who is doom and gloom personified, Grace has a surpribeat attitude about life. As the holidays approach, she decides it's time to make some positive changes in her life, looking into becoming a cosmetologist, and deciding it is time to meet the subway conductor that she dreams of. His name turns out to be Rob, and the audience knows before Grace does that he is unhappily engaged to a rather pushy woman named Olivia (Cynthia Dale). While Olivia is out of town, Grace puts her plan to meet Rob into action, with hilarious, touching, and ultimately humiliating results. Can Grace pick up the pieces and go on with her life? Can Rob actually marry Olivia? Or will fate throw them together after all? The biggest problem I have with this movie is that it completely ignores the issue that Grace is attempting to snare a man that is already taken. Granted, Grace doesn't know this at first, but when she finds out, she doesn't seem to care. Her attitude is that she will enjoy her time with him, and not worry about tomorrow, thus when tomorrow comes crashing in in the form of a very angry Olivia, I was more inclined to say "I told you so" to Grace than to comfort her. Likewise, I needed to see more of Rob working himself up to getting out of his relationship with Olivia. He just suddenly changes his mind, and shows up at the end of the movie asking to be with Grace, which is hard to swallow, even though the audiences wants to see them together. Finally, I can't imagine why Grace values Keri's friendship. Keri forces her to choose between friends, and then betrays Grace. Odd behavior from someone who is supposed to be your most trusted confidant. All of it added up to a somewhat unbelievable plot, which could have been fixed with a minimal amount of effort. Things might have worked better if Grace hadn't discovered Rob was engaged until she actually met his fiancé. And it definitely would have worked better if we had seen a scene where Rob finally tells Olivia that he wants nothing to do with her anymore, before going to tell Grace he wants to be with her, and really having to convince her to take him.The acting is a mixed bag. Lake does a nice job with Grace, although this is a similar character to Tracy in Hairspray. She contrasts Grace's sunny optimism very nicely with the difficulties she has with her family. Karlen and Buckley struggle to rise above bad material, but don't quite get there. Sheffer merely comes off as confused and unsure, while both Despotovich and Dale bristle with believable malice.I very much enjoy seeing the underdog have her day, and this is an underdog you can't help liking. But there is much that needs fixing in this movie, and the fixes are so easy that you wonder why somebody didn't catch them in the first place. So, enjoy the movie. Celebrate the triumph of this underdog, just ignore the lack of depth to the story.

wc1n3xx It has to be said from reading the others comments that this film produces a completely different reaction on those who have weight issues & those who don't. The fact that the film is based on society's reactions and experiences for people (Rikki) with weight issues and those who don't! (Rob) - later, even Ricki herself said that she no longer wished to play such obvious roles.As a larger person myself, the idea of emotional love and physical love with a slim person in combination can be a problem. Negative Body Image can be very distructve - Happily I experienced the 'hunk relationship' which was very healing - but for all the wrong reasons -I am guilty of proving to society that good looking people don't find fat people unattractive. In fact it took several (or more) such relationships to realise that relationships are much much deeper. Sorry to bore you, but I really did relate to the film.I didn't want the film to be seen just as a 'Hollywood Dream' as on commenter wrote . . . "as if the fat girl would get the hunk".But, yes the film was funny, it was sweet and very entertaining.

drella-2 Babycakes is a sweet film, but not nearly as good as the German movie upon which it is based, Percy Adlon's Zuckerbaby (1985). Why does Hollywood persist in making limp retreads of European gems? City of Angels, Three Men & A Baby, Pennies From Heaven, Blame It On Rio, The Vanishing, The Birdcage... Even sitcoms like All In The Family, Sanford & Son and Three's Company are just inferior retreads of Brit originals. To be fair, the Brits tried to remake The Golden Girls, and an unholy mess they made of that too... Sylvester Stallone's forthcoming remake of Get Carter fills me with abject dread. Are there no original ideas in La La Land any more?