My Review of 'Tall Girl'

Tall Girl is obviously a lighter film that takes small things and makes them seem big to each of the characters involved in the movie. I went into this movie knowing that it would be a predictable teen movie, and that's not a bad thing. I like watching teen movies once in a while, because they don't make me think too much, and I get to just enjoy the ride. Sometimes you have to give your brain a rest and just enjoy a movie with a few charismatic characters.

In Tall Girl we have the main protagonist Jodi, played by Ava Michelle. Jodi happens to be a talented tall beautiful girl. It just so happens that she's very insecure about her height, because she's been bullied since early childhood by a girl named Kimmy, played by Clara Wilsey. It's funny because she's got a best friend named Jack, played by Griffin Gluck, that is absolutely in love with her, and I'm sure there are others there that feel the same way. It's kind of like the movie She's All That where you can tell the girl is beautiful, and they try to dress the character frumpy to make us feel like she's unattractive. It never works.

Anyways, Jodi and I guess all of the girls in the high school fall for this new exchange student named Stig, played by Luke Eisner. The funny joke that they make is that Stig obviously looks like a model, but where he comes from, apparently he is the ugly one. They cleverly play off this little joke to build upon the story. Obviously Jodi's bully Kimmy snatches Stig up as soon as she can, and Jodi falls into convenient scenarios to meet up with Stig throughout the movie.

Yes, it's a predictable movie, but it's fun. The actors for this movie are charismatic enough to keep the pace of the movie going. You want to see how they resolve their issues with one another, while rooting for each of the characters to find their love.

There is a bit of comedy in the fact that each of the characters are so naive and innocent. They're all one dimensional in terms of getting to their goals. It's sort of like a whole bunch of non-gamer characters (NPC) in a video game. They're just going through the actions as it's scripted. Some of the dialogue does seem scripted, but the actors do a fine job in delivering the lines to make it seem a little more natural.

One of the drawbacks of the movie was that they didn't place enough emphasis on Jodi's friend Fareeda, played by Anjelika Washington. Fareeda is a great character with a ton of charm. She seemed to be a wasted character in this movie. I was hoping they'd do more with her and utilize this character.

The movie in general was written relatively well. It covered a lot of loose ends that could have been easily overlooked. You get a sense that you understand each of their motivations and there's a lot of foreshadowing that ties in at the end.

Overall, I enjoyed this movie. I would say that this movie is a movie that you can watch if you have some free time and you have nothing else to watch. It won't challenge your mind. Expect a nice, relaxing story that's easy to follow where you'll gain rapport with the characters.

I will have to give this movie a 7 out of 10. I don't think I would watch this movie again, but it was enjoyable when I watched it the first time around. It's a made-for-TV movie that is adequate to kill two hours of your life.