Dumplin’: Danielle Macdonald shines in Netflix’s beauty pageant dramedy

Dumplin’ is an American coming-of-age comedy film directed by Anne Fletcher and written by Kristin Hahn. It is based on the young adult novel of the same name by Julie Murphy. The film stars Danielle Macdonald as Willowdean “Dumplin’” Dickson, Jennifer Aniston as her mother, Rosie Dickson, and Odeya Rush as her best friend, Ellen Dryver. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Dumplin’ holds an approval rating of 85% based on 59 reviews, with an average rating of 6.5/10.

The website’s critical consensus reads, “Elevated by a solid soundtrack and a terrific cast, Dumplin’ offers sweetly uplifting drama that adds just enough new ingredients to a reliably comforting formula.” On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 53 out of 100, based on 16 critics, indicating “mixed or average reviews”.Director Anne Fletcher isn’t working as sharply here as she has in films like The Proposal, Hot Pursuit, and 27 Dresses; there’s a softness to Dumplin‘s narrative that goes beyond the low-stakes story line and Lone Star twangs.

Aniston is mostly playing a beehived outline, though she has a great time with her frosted tips and fluttery hands, and Macdonald is so immensely likable, you wish she was given a little more genuine tension in a script that seems content to settle for TV-movie peaks and valleys. Still, there’s so much willful, joyful uplift in the final scenes, it’s hard not to buy into every aphorism re-upped from the classic Dolly playbook (Parton also provides 12 new songs and re-recorded classics for the movie’s excellent soundtrack — ‘Girl in the Movies’ landed a Golden Globe nomination): “If you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain”?

“Find out who are and do it on purpose”? “Be a diamond in a rhinestone world”? If your guilty pleasures expand to include Hallmark-style sentimentality this time of year, you might consider adding “Dumplin’” to your viewing lineup. It has nothing to do with the holiday season, but it’s wrapped as neatly as any gift you might find under a Christmas tree.