The Plot

When high school teen Bianca (Mae Whitman) discovers that she is the DUFF (Designated Ugly Fat Friend) to her more popular friends, she seeks the help of her childhood friend to get strip herself of the label.

The Good

It feels almost wrong to describe The Duff in the way it will no doubt be compared to considering the two films tiny difference of only eleven years between release dates, but it truly feels like a modern Mean Girls! Just typing that out felt wrong. Mean Girls is such a tremendously popular film that still rings true to new audiences eleven years later, but here’s where the difference lies between it and The Duff. Strange as it may seem, Mean Girls was made in a time when the social groups were just starting to change. The geeks have now inherited the earth and this is partly due to the social networking boom that’s been growing more rapidly over the last decade.

The Duff takes this in it’s stride and works with it to create a new high school rom com which just feels simply much more up to date with it’s constant referencing to Twitter, Tumblr, Vine, Instagram and every other social networking platform imaginable right now.

The real trouble with The Duff is it’s premise. A film which has a main premise of an idea that every friend group has a Designated Ugly Fat Friend who is deemed the more approachable in order to flirt with their friends is a dangerous one that could have had a more disastrous outcome. Fortunately The Duff comes out mostly unscathed. This is due mainly to the incredible talent of Mae Whitman. She holds the film on her own spectacularly and with a much respected grace that skims lightly over the line of offence and never crosses it. While the supporting cast do have their moments, such as Robbie Amell’s cute role of the best friend, and Ken Jeong and Allison Janney occasionally popping up for a golden moment or two, Whitman is the force that holds this film together.

The Bad

For a film which tries to defy the status quo and send the message that we don’t need to be labelled, The Duff still manages to hit many of the traditional rom-com rules, to the point where it feels like it’s unfortunately following each step of the rom-com gospel word by word. Because of this the film becomes predictable almost from the very beginning. To all rom-com fans it won’t be anything particularly groundbreaking unfortunately.

The Ugly Truth

The Duff has a good idea as its main premise, and brings a good flow of plenty laughs throughout. However it’s determination to stick to the rom-com guide brings down its chances of being a Mean Girls for a new generation.