the filmmakers never give this character a real, searching, complex inner life; They turn emotional complexity into affirmations and a potentially transformational character into a you-go-girl cliche
preachy-tiresome movies like "Dumplin'" until it simply becomes normal for an obese person to appear on screen without being defined entirely in terms of weight
as it proceeds through a series of teary reconciliations in the last half-hour of its 110-minute run time, the film's didactic drama begins to grate, its treacly emotions feeling increasingly unearned