70
The shocking, ambiguous ending might have been better served by the film's original, ambiguous title, "To My Sister."
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
75
Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt
This disturbing drama has many telling moments, but it ends with an out-of-the-blue shock episode that raises more questions than it answers.
75
New York Daily News by Elizabeth Weitzman
Breillat has made an important, even essential work about the exploitation of young women's sexuality, but is not she complicit as well?
90
As fascinating as it is discomfiting and as intelligent as it is primal. From first shot to last, France's foremost bad girl has made an extremely good movie -- and maybe even a great one.
63
Uncompromising and unforgiving, but ultimately more self-destructive than any of its characters.
80
Los Angeles Times by Kevin Thomas
The film's concluding sequence is bound to polarize audiences.
100
Entertainment Weekly by Lisa Schwarzbaum
With the pitiless, devastating Fat Girl, Catherine Breillat puts men and women, boys and girls on notice: When fantasy, hypocrisy, and manipulation mix in a wet, sandy place, you dive into sex at your own risk.
88
Chicago Tribune by Michael Wilmington
It's sensuality with a stinger, and Fat Girl is an adolescent sex drama that takes no prisoners.
90
It's a lean, mean movie, and not a pretty one, but it leaves no question as to Breillat's angular originality as a filmmaker.
90
The New York Times by Stephen Holden
Much more than a perfectly realized vignette about seduction. It is the latest and most powerful dispatch yet from Ms. Breillat, France's most impassioned correspondent covering the war between the sexes.
This film is definitely not for everyone. Especially the film's conclusion is sure to anger many. However, this film's courage to tackle complicated and sensitive subjects is proof of Catherine Breillat's talent. At its core this film is an exploration of sexuality and how it is explored by teenage girls, and how often that desire is exploited. The film's conclusion begs us to ponder the nuances and development of female desire and sexuality, and it left me thinking about the film for the next few days. I still don't have all of the answers, and I think that is what Breillat intended. A raw and uncomfortable, but brilliant, film!