Patti Cake$ undercuts its own message

Danielle Macdonald in Patti Cake$. Image courtesy Fox Searchlight Pictures.

Patti Cake$ succeeds as a piece of cinematic fluff, a vehicle to deliver a friendly, uplifting story of a down on her luck woman trying to pursue her dreams. It does just fine following the formula of the scrappy underdog fighting against the travails of her life and passion, carried by a solid lead performance and some solid jokes along the way. The movie is cute and endearing, although its shiny patina can’t cover the emptiness and some disconcerting aspects to the characterizations. All the cheeriness and hopefulness can't cover the concept craters residing just underneath it.

The sense of lightness for Patti Cake$ begins with the eponymous rapper Patti (Danielle Macdonald), an overweight 23-year-old white woman who dips into Doug-esque daytime fantasies about becoming a famous rapper. Her reality is that of a Jersey girl still living with her drunken dreamer of a mother Barb (Bridget Everett) and her grandmother (Cathy Moriarty) and working a few menial jobs to pay the bills. Fantasies are tough to shake though, and she's joined in her quixotic quest by fellow rapper and best friend Jheri (Siddharth Dhananjay) and quiet avant-garde anarchist Basterd (Mamoudou Athie). Together they form a rap group to escape their dead end lives and the horrors of living just outside of Newark.

Patti Cake$ gets a lot of mileage from how downtrodden Jersey is and how much people want to escape it. There's no real future there for Patti and her friends aside from repeating her mom's life and rapping outside of gas stations (albeit one that is lacking the requisite service attendant). So, yeah, there's enough in the milieu to start cheering Patti on from the get go, and its assisted by Macdonald's performance. Macdonald's performance highlights the lack of hope in her character's life, one in which jobs at seedy bars and in a catering company are considered highlights to a better future. It just feels right to cheer Patti on as she navigate the movie's formulaic but well executed plot points to a not overly positive but hopeful ending. Add in some good supporting performances and a few catchy tunes and gosh is this such a friendly little movie.

Where Patti Cake$ falters is when it considers inserting a little substance to its otherwise empty narrative. Ideally for writer/director Geremy Jasper viewers would accept the movie's cheery vibe and well executed motivation story, pleased by the simple satisfaction of an ambiguously optimistic ending. A quick peek just under the hood could result in a favorable look at a movie with an overweight female protagonist finding success despite the societal hurdles put in front of her.

But stew on this movie a little more though and a whole host of problems begin to arise that reveals a sour taste underneath the sugary coating.The issues start with the transformation the characters make to reach that happy ending. Through most of their trials and tribulations, Patti and Basterd have a sense of self worth devoted to their outlooks on the world. They’re individuals in style and substance, content to allow their talents to speak for them despite it being less than ideal in a societal sense. At least until the final act in which Patti gets a glamorous makeover and Basterd loses his anarchist edge and conforms to a comfortable normal. It's problematic enough for Patti to go through such a transformation – the idea of a woman's value being related to appearances is cliché and damaging – but having Basterd undergo the same process reinforces the problem.One of Patti Cake$ major themes, being true to oneself despite the problems that may arise, is undercut unnecessarily.

It is also troublesome for Patti Cake$ the way Patti handles the jeers and taunts directed at her by a number of characters. When people spit out insults concerning her weight and the impact that has on her sexuality, Patti – and Jasper by extension – plays into the game instead of shooting down the barbs launched at her. The film doesn't allow her to spit back insults mocking the people who are calling her ugly; rather, it embarrasses them for possibly being attracted to her. Her sexuality is a joke even to Patti herself, and that betrays what should be the deepest part of her character. That’s to speak nothing of the issues with cultural appropriation and racism.

Once those thoughts start entering your head the appeal of Patti Cake$ falls apart. There's really nothing worth overly hating about it, as this is far too genial of a movie to get properly upset at. But the emptiness of the whole endeavor is a clear letdown; with more thought and care this movie could have been something special.

Review: Three out of Five Stars

Click here to see the trailer.

Rating: R

Run time: 108 minutes

Genre: Comedy

Ask Away

Target audience: Audiences down for a feel good story with little substance to it.

Take the whole family?: The rating is more for the language than any explicit sex or violence. Parents a little more sensitive to vulgar language should keep kids at home, but this won't bother the average 13 year old.

Theater or Netflix?: Eh, might as well wait for it to stream.

How is Danielle Macdonald's rapping?: At least serviceable, a step up in quality from certain other female Australian rappers. What is weird is the content she's rapping about, which is heavy with pop culture references from before her character's birth. Rap is heavy on obscure and old references – hell, Lupe Fiasco dropped a line about Lupin the Third – but the references she makes are far more obscure.

Watch this as well?: 8 Mile is leagues better than this, featuring a more nuanced ascent and a pretty solid performance by Eminem. Also check out Hustle & Flow, which shares elements with Patti Cake$ but, again, does them better