Film Review: Brittany Runs a Marathon

Warning! Contains spoilers!

Last week my sister and I attended a preview screening of Brittany Runs a Marathon.

Brittany Runs a Marathon stars Jillian Bell as the main character, Brittany Forgler, alongside Michaela Watkins as Catherine. Catherine lives above Brittany and before she gets to know Catherine, Brittany has nicknamed her ‘Moneybags Martha’.

Also starring in the film is Utkarsh Ambudkar as Jern. Jern is someone that Brittany meets whilst house/pet sitting to make some extra money.

There’s also Lil Rel Howery as Demetrius who is married to Brittany’s sister, but has been like a step dad to her and Micah Stock as Seth whom Brittany meets as part of a running group.

Brittany runs a marathon is based on a true story inspired by Brittany O’Neill, a close friend of Marathon writer-directer, Paul Downs Colaizzo. The pair grew up in Georgia and reconnected when they were in their 20s in New York. Brittany needed a room, Colaizzo needed a place to stay – and a friendship was reborn. (Source)

The film follows the journey of overweight, Brittany. She visits her doctor as she says she has a hard time focusing and one of her friends was prescribed the drug Adderall. Brittany saw how Adderall helped to give her friend more energy and had hoped to follow in her footsteps. However, Brittany’s lifestyle of fast food, drinking and partying hasn’t had the best impact on her health.

Despite her best efforts, her doctor refuses to prescribe Adderall and instead provides a dose of reality. Her blood pressure and BMI are high amongst other health issues. Her doctor says that he want Brittany to lose 55lbs.

Brittany returns home and is faced with ‘Moneybags Martha’ about to go for a run while asking Brittany not to leave her stuff in the corridors. As she runs off she shouts ‘Change is possible!’

At one particularly low point in the film, Brittany feels as though everyone’s lives are going places and hers is just stuck. One night, ‘Moneybags Martha’ aka Catherine from the flat above Brittany’s, hear Brittany crying and knocks her door to see if she can help.

Brittany pushes Catherine away. She doesn’t want her pity. Brittany lives with her best friend, Gretchen (Alice Lee). Gretchen is pretty self-obsessed, selfish and obsessed with her image. She has little time for Brittany.

Brittany starts to make small changes to her life. For example, one day she dons her workout clothes and trainers and decided to run one block. As you can imagine running in crowded New York isn’t easy and these scenes had the entire audience laughing as Brittany dodged mums with their double pushchairs and dog walkers.

Slowly, Brittany starts to see changes. She’s lost weight, feels great and has more confidence. Gretchen, however, just doesn’t see how much of an achievement this is for Brittany and makes subtle jibes about how Brittany isn’t a real runner.

As a runner myself, I found myself relating to so much in this film. Those first nervous steps out of the front door in inappropriate clothes and training, but then the sense of achievement at having run one block and then next time, running two blocks.

Brittany did consider joining a gym, but at $129 a month, that wasn’t feesible for Brittany who works in a theatre handing out play bills.

As the film progresses we see Catherine starting to form a friendship with Brittany, although it’s very much at a distance to start with. Catherine is athletic, she’s a photographer, married and has children. On the outside her life seems perfect, but it isn’t all as rosy as it seems.

Catherine mentions to Brittany that she’s part of a running group and she invites Brittany along. It’s here that we first meet Seth. Seth is gay and he and his husband have two children. Seth wants to prove to his children that he can run but like Brittany, he’s not very active and finds himself struggling.

During Brittany’s run with the running group she comes up alongside a very out of breath Seth who’s telling himself, “You can do this”. Brittany thinks he’s talking to her and says “Yes I know”.

The two of them continue with their run and we witness them being overtaken by a group of children to which Brittany hilariously says, “We’re going backwards!”.

Later in the film we see Brittany trying to convince Seth and Catherine to run the New York City Marathon together. Catherine is super keen, but Seth not to much, however he agrees.

Seth is successful in the lottery for the New York City Marathon, as is Catherine, however Brittany is not so has to take a charity place.

She gets a second job as a pet/house sitter and this is where she meet Jern. He’s the ‘night guy’ who’s actually moved into the rather expensive house he’s meant to be looking after.

We follow Brittany’s journey on her weight loss and running. She continues to do well until one day when she gets a stress fracture. She’s told she can’t run for 8 weeks, but the marathon is in 6.

Brittany was devastated.

As the day of the marathon arrives, Brittany catches sight of a photo on Facebook of Seth and Catherine with their medals having completed the marathon.

Brittany feels low at this point. She argues with Gretchen and moves into the house she’s meant to be looking after with Jern. They both eventually get kicked out when the owners return forcing Brittany to move in with her sister.

As you can imagine, Brittany starts to put weight back on and at Demetrius’s birthday party, things come to a head when Brittany is rude to a couple about the woman’s weight.

After a pretty stern pep talk from Demetrius, Brittany finds herself back on track and decides that she will run the marathon the following year.

Watching Brittany’s journey reminded me of my own. I was overweight, unhealthy and needed to turn my life around. I started running. Just 1km to start with, then 2km, then 3km etc and now I can proudly say that I’ve run two half marathons and a marathon, plus I”m going to be running the London Marathon again next year.

Brittany runs a marathon is hilarious, relatable and a enjoyable movie. I would 100% recommend it.