Tall Girl...A Review

Scrolling through Netflix one day, I came upon "Tall Girl" as one of the new releases. I knew it was another two hour long high school misfit tale, but decided to give it a chance anyway. Being a new movie, of course there was a lot of hype about it, and I didn't want to miss out in case it was good.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD. Let's get into it!

So, at least to me, the ending was so predictable. The entire high school drama trope is rooted in the pairing of the misfits, in this case, Jodi and Dunkleman. I guess the last scene, where Dunkleman stands on his milk crate to kiss her was supposed to be sweet and tear-jerking, but I found it a bit cheap, to be completely honest with you. It's not that I don't support the match, I just felt like it came out of nowhere, with no time for Jodi to actually fall in love with Dunkleman the same way that she fell for Stig. Scratch that, NOT the same infatuated way, but you get the idea.

This also doesn't seem fair to Dunkleman, since he has pure and sincere feelings for Jodi, while she kind of realized this and went along with it. Sure, she likes him, but as a friend mostly. The ending is supposed to symbolize how Jodi re-evaluates her ideal boyfriend, and how she finds that real love has been staring at her face the whole time, but in reality, it just seems fake. The depth of Dunkleman's sentiments in comparison to Jodi's relatively shallow reciprocation of them doesn't sound ideal for him in particular. Don't get me wrong, I like Jodi, because she represents what most high school girls go through when they're considered outsiders, something I've felt almost my whole life. But Dunkleman embodies the epitome of desirable characteristics in a love interest. He's confident and frank enough to admit his affection for her, without being too forceful and somber about it. In fact, he always seems to use it to make her laugh. He has always been there with her from a young age, and his devotion is touching.

In the beginning, when he first gets to know Stig, he advises him not to chase after a relationship with Jodi, and stick with Kimmy instead, because he knows that Jodi would fall for Stig the way he only dreams that she'd fall for him. I considered that rapacious of him to say that, because a real friend/unrequited lover would have told Stig to go for it in order to make Jodi happy. That mistake is revised near the end, where Dunkleman gifts Jodi the sparkly high heels, and tells her that someday she could wear them for someone better than him. To me personally, that was the realest love in the entire movie.

Until that point, the audience probably didn't take Dunkleman's affection to seriously in the name of "puppy love", but that kind of love we see reflected with Stig. He, as we learn later, was just like Dunkleman in Sweden, which is why he's so anxious to form a bond with his American counterpart. But Stig soon gets swept up in the idealism of being the "it" guy, and keeps dating Kimmy not because he likes her, but because he wants to enjoy his newfound status before he goes back to being Dunkleman in his homeland. Of course, one could say that he does have feelings for Jodi, but not even close to competing with the mature tenderness that Dunkleman regards her.

Now, back to that last scene, when Jodi and Dunkleman kiss, and the world is happy.

I mentioned earlier that I found it to be inorganic. Sure, Jodi did see that clip where Dunkleman took a punch to defend her in front of her peers at the party, but gallantry shouldn't be the only reason she suddenly changed her mind about him.

Obviously, she did the right thing in leaving Stig for good, but that doesn't mean she should instantly rebound with Dunkleman, especially when her sentiments aren't as constant as his. I felt like Dunkleman deserved better, a girl like Liz, who actually pays attention to him and cares about him deeply. She even was good-natured enough not to force a relationship with Dunkleman, which I think she could have, and sent the clip to Jodi. Liz is probably my favorite character, even though she played a supporting role. She is the model for how to deal with rejection; not hope and pray and wait for it to happen (like Dunkleman), not aggressively force it (like Kimmy), but accept it and move on cheerfully. She also seems to be the most down-to-earth character, and the one we'd root for if she was in the leading role. What I most admire about her is her genuineness, and inner confidence. She might seem bashful on the outside, but she is also unafraid to go after what she wants. She initiates contact with Dunkleman first, inviting him out to the parade, and her gift of the gluten-free cookie shows how thoughtful she is. She probably wasn't head over heels for Dunkleman either, and had the maturity to stop pursuing him when she comprehended his deep feeling for Jodi, while still maintaining an amicable relationship with him.

In this way, she's a foil for Kimmy, who couldn't stand the thought of Stig preferring any other girl, as shown with the dramatic cafeteria scene, where she would stare down her competition until one-by-one, they'd leave the table. She also can't stand Jodi being the girl Stig favors, while Liz only wants the best for her, as illustrated when she sent her a clip of Dunkleman confronting Stig.

Another thing to explore about "Tall Girl" is its depiction of the foreign exchange student. The description is also romantic, as shown with other similar films. Even within the movie, we learn that Harper got her heart broken over an exchange student, which further illustrates her reluctance to transform Jodi into herself. In addition, the broader concept of the movie seems to beckon towards eliminating the misogynist themes centralized in its predecessors. This theme is that girls in particular have to fight among each other to impress a dominant male figure, and how the dominant male only selects the one that "wins". Jodi had to completely transform herself physically to get Stig to consider her, and even that wasn't enough for him, as he gave her up for his desire to have power, in this case, popularity.

Dunkleman, however, provides a much more progressive view. He's the guy Jodi doesn't have to change herself to impress; he adores her for who she is. He's known her for years, and he never saw her height as detrimental to his affection. He admired and even loved her for everything that she was, even when she was the shy, slouching, and fearful girl at the beginning of the movie, reflecting a much more mature unrequited love than typical of high school drama film portrayals.

Fareeda represents our ideal best friend, one who defends us, as well as pushes us to be our best. Glamorous, bold, and solicitous, she's also the feminist ideal, not afraid to dance on her own, and rocking everything she's got. She doesn't need the validation of her peers or a guy to love herself like Jodi often does, and is secure in her self-worth, something most of the other characters lack. Even Kimmy, whom we think is this charismatic self-confident icon, feels insecure about herself because her love interest likes Jodi.

Let's examine Kimmy for a moment. What I liked about "Tall Girl" was its portrayal of the queen bee. In cult favorites such as "Mean Girls," the clique leader tends to be somewhat dim-witted, while the misfits tend to be "smart". Jodi is considered a nerd in this movie, but Kimmy is depicted as highly accomplished, having traveled the world and picked up languages pretty quickly. In fact, on the first day of school, she talks with Stig in Swedish! She's also fearless in her endeavors. She likes what she sees in Stig, and isn't hesitant to approach him. In some ways, she represents the modern ambitious woman, with her style and her visions, and especially her feeling threatened when Jodi becomes an obstacle in her path to Stig's heart. Despite her accomplishments, Kimmy seems like a shallow b*tch, when in reality she's insecure, something most of us can relate to. She can also embody the cautionary tale of the movie, which shows that we should be as confident as Jodi at the end, while still retaining her gentleness and frankness, without turning into Kimmy.