While watching this movie, I heard the term "Cinderella Pact" so often that I wondered why that wasn't the film's title. As it turns out, that is the title of the book on which the film is based. But since the book's title is so much better than the one that the movie wound up with -- after all, this is a variation on the age-old Cinderella story -- why *was* the title changed? Did the author disown the movie, or what? It's hard to complain that more "weight-appropriate" actresses weren't hired to play the three members of the Cinderella Pact because, honestly, how else could they have lost the weight called for in the script without stretching the filming out long enough to break the budget? To me, the best things in this work are 1) "Cinderella's" gown and slippers, and 2) my discovery of Chelah Horsdal, who plays her best friend.In closing, I have but one question: has our heroine, who after all is a writer by trade, never heard the term "nom de plume"? Watch the movie to the end, and you'll understand why I ask.

before jumping to judgment on the development of the friends characters, you should give the book: "the Cinderella pact" by Sarah strohmeyer a read. i think the movie did a good job of staying true to the author's story and what a great story it is. so often you read a great book, then a movie is made and it is nothing like the story. thankfully that was not the case in this instance. while the movie doesn't delve as deeply into the secondary characters lives as the novel, you still see the point that the author was making. it is not being "skinny" that empowers these women; it is the bond of their friendship and the self-confidence that they build in one another. we should all be so lucky as to have friends like deb and nancy.

A golden opportunity was missed in this 2010 film. We have a possibly interesting premise where 3 heavy ladies vow to lose weight. A much better tale would have been to show how the weight loss affected their lives afterward. One woman would leave her husband but this is only barely spoken about. Another, tells her boss off vowing to file a sexual harassment charge. This too should have gone into much more depth.Instead, we are left with a story where 2 people who meet don't really tell the truth about themselves. One is an assistant writer who has privately written a book under another name giving advice and the man she meets supposedly works on computer chips until it's determined that he is really the son of the publisher. Big deal.The whole story is contrived and very uninteresting.

I DVR'd this movie after seeing that Poppy Montgomery and Adam Kaufman (real-life couple) were playing main characters. I thought the acting was decent. To disagree with the previous reviewer, I found the leads to be engaging and likable. Poppy Montgomery was convincing as both the overweight character in the first half and the newly thin character in the second. Could they have cast a heavier actress to be more authentic? Sure. But wouldn't have have required major weight loss in a short amount of time for said actress? And wouldn't there still be complaints about forcing actresses to be thin? Adam Kaufman played the "cute boy with something mysterious going on" role very well. When you watch a movie on Lifetime, that's all you can ask for. I could have done without the annoying boss at Shine. She really was annoying, which I suppose was the point. For me, those scenes were the hardest to sit through.I enjoyed this movie. The conversations between friends were natural, and the topics were real and typical. I thought the romantic leads played off each other nicely. They were believable.