'The Duff' review: Bad writing plays the film's villain

Director: Ari Sandel
Cast: Mae Whitman, Bella Thorne, Robbie Amell, Ken Jeong, Allison Janney, Bianca A Santos, Skyler Samuels
Rating: **

What it's about: A plain-Jane learns the bitter truth - people only care about her existence because her friends are super-hot. When her neighbour, a well-meaning though blunt school jock tells her she's a Designated Ugly Fat Friend (DUFF; as in the film's title), she's jolted enough to want to change everyone's perception of her, and get the acknowledgement she seeks.

What's hot: Ken Jeong is the only big name, unless you're familiar with Ms Thorne, in this film featuring mostly pretty unknowns. Earnest performances from Whitman and Amell help the film despite the badly written characters. The supporting cast is adequately adequate.

What's not: It gets kind of annoying when someone states the obvious and then makes an entire film of it. The writers obviously don't want to move beyond the central premise and Bianca's (Whitman's) inner conflict and goofiness. Equally annoying are the standard characters one sees in such films, who are conveniently placed in places they shouldn't be. Bianca's character is too needy, too insecure and too naïve to get your sympathy despite Mae's best efforts to make it work. Bad writing is the villain of this piece.

What to do: Wait till this one is out on DVD. Not worth the big screen experience.