I was hesitant when I saw it was another from the epicenter of bad taste and cringe worthy clichés that is the sundance film festival. Media containing John C Riley, and an over weight teen has appeal like it could have some powerful endorphin driving, dialog and dialect about character and reality... Which is exactly what was attempted, only to be abruptly diluted in a mixture of melodramatic assumptions of what being a loner "teen" is like, and the shock value of implied child pornography. The Movie "Terri" simply tries, for an hour and forty minutes, to be artistic and moving, yet completely fails to develop any character or moral in anyone, much less an actual story, enough to evoke liking or similarity.

A comedy drama? They could have fooled me. "Terri, you're so funny," says the blond. Which Terri has she been watching?"Terri" is yet another non-saga about an outsider, another lone-boy/misfit tale that the world of film doesn't necessarily need. A dull fat kid hates his life, and he has every reason to. If I had to carry that much extra weight around with me then I'd jump off the first bridge – or go on an extreme diet; no third option there. But it's this third option of Terri just walking around depressed and glum that the movie focuses on, which is admittedly how it is in real life. (It is this inertness and lack of self-initiative that gets fatties into their unhealthy predicaments in the first place). As if we hadn't seen it all before, on film or in real life.Fat Boy has his reasons for being obese and undisciplined (as much as having layers of flab during teenage years can ever be justified), but it's hard to care that much. Perhaps if Chubbs were more interesting or at least a little more animated. While I do not support direct verbal abuse of obese people (ridiculing them behind their XXXL backs is perfectly fine), especially abuse of lard-ass kids, in any kind of public situation, I do nevertheless believe that most fatties need some amount of harassment and abuse in order to wake and smell the coffee, a reminder that the excessive crap they're carrying around with them isn't anything they should ever get used to. For those who don't change their gluttonous ways even after they'd been mocked for the umpteenth time and can barely get out of bed without the aid of a crane or three strong wrestlers, they don't deserve either our time or our pity. Terri's P.E. teacher is right on the money with his criticism of Blob Kid. Terri's response to whether he wants to participate in P.E. class is a resounding "no". If I were that teacher I'd have him crawling on all fours until he's blue/red/yellow/green in the face and until he'd vomited his last five bean-based breakfasts."Terri" has no point to make, aside from a few observations about "the human condition", which is, I guess, why this movie's poster is full of those useless-movie-festival and hopelessly-deluded-critics' quotes that are supposed to elevate a merely solid movie into the status of a minor classic. Indeed, the writer/director was obviously clueless about how to end the movie, which is why it has no real ending; no conclusion, no main event, nothing tangible to wrap up the story in a meaningful way. This might as well be the first episode in a TV mini-series.That wasn't the only part of the script the writer/director was unsure about. He must have been puzzled how to make Terri and the blond beauty interact (considering how relatively boring he had made the title character) in Blubber-Boy's house, so he inserted the highly predictably plot-device of Chad interfering with their first meeting/date, acting as a catalyst to the movie's worst and dumbest moments.Speaking of which, while Terri at least appears like a reality-based character i.e. someone we can believe actually exists on planet Earth, Chad doesn't – in the slightest. Chad is one of those absurd dime-a-dozen High-School-movie inventions of the sort that we'd already seen in countless cliché teen flicks about very fictional kids. Even worse, this badly written part was also badly miscast; giving it to some skinny little runt-of-the-litter loser kid who can't weigh more than 35 pounds was just adding insult to injury. (I suppose we were supposed to find the body contrast between the heavyweight and the ultra-featherweight kids very amusing.) Both Chad's character and the actor who plays him are highly annoying, adding nothing to the story except unnecessary nonsense. Chad's overly adult (hence absurd) humour and the illogical amounts of confidence he carries (for a runt of his kind) weigh down the director's attempts at realism. The film hits its low point when Chad gets high and starts urinating on his pants, a ludicrous scene that must have caused that deranged, empty-headed buffoon Harmony Korine ("Ken Park") to cry out: "I wish I'd thought of that!" Perhaps John Waters would have gladly done it too, in one of his older movies. Chad offering his tiny pecker to the blond was just as absurd; perhaps a scene more fitting in a "Porky's" movie.That whole awful blond-comes-over-to-Terri's-house segment utterly sinks whatever seriousness or momentum the film had built up until that point. It failed comedically too – in case that had been the writer/director's goal, which is hard to tell. In fact, there wasn't one moment in the movie that I could label as truly funny. There was a handful of mildly amusing moments, but that's about it. Terri should have signed up for an episode of MTV's "Made"; that would have been funnier and no less "poignant". In reality, the blond would have wanted Terri only as a friend; the fact that this experienced harlot wants him sexually, drugged or not, has no basis in reality.The pajama-wearing hasn't an iota of realism, nor does the masturbation scene; these kids would have done it in the toilet.The movie does have a solid look though, and the dialogue (apart from Chad's) is generally OK. Reilly's school principal has some originality, and ultimately this should have been a story about him, not the fat kid who needs the boob-job. I'd like to use this opportunity to recommend Ricky Gervais's stand-up comedy, during which he often has a lengthy segment in which he ridicules obesity. It's some of the funniest stuff I'd seen in a while.

If I could cite only only reason to see this film it would be to see Creed Bratton do drama. Damn! His character is really interesting and pulls at your heart.But it is John C. Reilly that makes the movie work. This guy can simply be anybody. This time he is an insightful and empathetic associate principal at the title character's high school, Mr. Fitzgerald. To have been an adolescent boy with an adult friend as cool and compassionate and as vulnerable as Mr. Fitzgerald, would be a blessing. Having briefly work as a sub teacher and can assert that a teacher like him would be putting him self at great risk by removing the wall between himself and a student. They should though;at least the teachers who are there to help kids.I try to never discuss elements of the plot but let me say there is a female school mate of Terri's whose actions are very emblematic of the conflicting forces that a young girl might face. Surprising .. yet not I guess.

I thought this is a film that can really hit home with a lot of people. In today's modern age, we're given less of a chance to get to know someone because there are always loopholes to social conversations or meeting a person, well, in person.Terri is a very good hearted kid in this film, that's obvious, but he also buckles under pressure from Chad and Heather. And with this it almost makes it less sympathetic only because it seems to be a weak point in himself. And throughout the movie, I couldn't decide if it would end well or not. By the end there's a sense of depression rather then empathy for him. Nothing seems to be working out but he still holds a smile at the end.Overall, I very much liked this film seeing as it can touch base with how some kids are. Chad, for instance, seems self destructive and can also buckle under the pressure to be liked. And that is where all three characters relate, they all want to be wanted by someone because no one else wants them. Uncle James is too sick to care for Terri and it seems both sets of parents for Chad and Heather aren't around, as well. Even if this film doesn't connect, it doesn't fail to show diversity in people and how everyone just doesn't click with one another. I did, however, think the ending was a bit choppy but leaving it to the viewer to decide on how things went.