★★☆☆☆

Make no mistake: “The Duff” is a movie for tween girls. It’s simple and, though funny at times, ultimately underwhelming. That being said, it does have some fun with the feel-good high school comedy genre.

The premise of the movie is pretty typical: a high school girl named Bianca discovers that she’s the “DUFF,” or “designated ugly fat friend,” in her group and decides to change her life with the help of her obnoxiously attractive childhood friend — who also happens to be captain of the football team and her neighbor. From there, the plot follows the typical structure of a teen movie, with its emotional highs and lows based on the main character’s relationships with various boys and her social standing (or lack thereof). It’s the kind of plot your little sister would probably eat up, but there’s not quite enough weight or creativity to make the movie palatable to anyone above the age of 15.

The dialogue drags with cliche after cliche, and the mood in scenes changes abruptly. Characters change their minds with little to no convincing, and a lot of the exposition feels forced and awkward. The voiceover — which is certainly an overused device in these kinds of movies — feels trite, and a lot of the dialogue overtly delivers the girl-power message of the movie.

Just the first few minutes of the movie overuse a lot of teen movie tropes. Within the first half hour, Bianca has already thrown a drink in a guy’s face, looked at herself questioningly in the mirror, and Googled the term “DUFF.” She’s already encountered the quirky teacher, the school drama queen and countless other cliche cast members.

The character development is poor at best, and at times even nonsensical. It tries to make the male lead, Wes, more sympathetic by giving him a scene with family drama and awkwardly tries to work into the dialogue the fact that he’s a scholarship student. His character could have used a much more developed back story if the screenwriters were going for the underappreciated, misunderstood jock character.
Bianca’s friends are also poorly developed. You can tell that the author was going for girl-power-style gender equality by making it so that one of Bianca’s beautiful friends just happens to also be an incredible hacker, but her skills only get fleeting mentions in the storyline and remain completely unexplained, only showing up when they’re needed to move the plot forward. It was an awkward addition to a very underdeveloped character.

Bianca is the only character who consistently shines, probably because Mae Whitman plays her with a very clear openness to awkwardness. She is utterly believable as the cult-movie-loving, plaid-flannel-wearing, adorably awkward lead, and her growth into confidence feels very natural.

Her fellow lead, Robbie Amell as Wes, also has some fantastic moments, which is part of the reason the second half of the movie feels more organic and less cliche. The emotions in his face seem genuine and help lead the movie into more believable and interesting territory.

This film also built tension in the second half. The soundtrack, though occasionally too obvious in its attempt to match lyrics to the tone of the scene, contributes to the attack and release tension strategy that the director seems to be going for. There’s a particular moment towards the end of the movie where Daft Punk’s “Give Life Back to Music” keeps building and building until it drops off perfectly in time with the release of tension in the scene, and it’s a great moment for the movie.

The movie also does a good job of delivering a satisfying ending. The twists may be predictable, but at least in the very end it does what every uplifting tween movie should: it makes you feel good. You don’t mean to, but you leave the theater smiling. Plus, it’s hard not to laugh at the ending credits — they may just be the funniest part of the movie.

This isn’t a movie to pay money to see as a college student, or as anyone who isn’t a tween girl. But if you’re somehow forced to watch it, you’ll probably enjoy it just a little bit.