Brittany Runs a Marathon Parent Guide

Brittany (Jillian Bell) is despondent. “I’m starting to feel like everyone’s lives are going places and I’m kind of stuck.” She’s caught in a holding pattern: she graduated from Cornell, but her planned advertising career has derailed and she’s working as a theater usher. She’s living with a roommate in a small apartment, staring balefully at her expanding body in the mirror, and trying to keep partying like an irresponsible undergrad. She hits rock bottom in a doctor’s office, trying to cadge a prescription for Adderall, only to be prescribed weight loss instead. A mountain of debt means that Brittany can’t afford a gym membership, but the sidewalk is free, so she starts running.

I have to confess my own bias here: I hate running. Watching Brittany wheeze and sweat and stagger as she starts running is an exercise in empathy. But as Brittany persists, she starts to feel the benefits (which I have never discovered) and she sets a new goal – running in the New York City Marathon.

Audiences who buy tickets for a comedy expect a happy ending, and they won’t be disappointed in Brittany Runs a Marathon. But the screenwriters deserve credit: this script doesn’t move from A to B to “happily ever after” in a direct, predictable line. Brittany struggles, unforeseen disaster strikes, and we’re never actually certain how the story is going to work out. Will Brittany get the triumph we expect or will she re-frame her idea of a happy ending?

This production also deserves credit for putting a complex main character on screen. Brittany isn’t a one note protagonist. She’s a bright, talented, empathetic woman who loves to help people and make them laugh. She can also be lazy, dishonest, and unethical. And her struggles with self-esteem can be agonizing to watch, especially when she agrees to a casual acquaintance’s proposition for a sexual act she doesn’t want to perform, simply because she doesn’t value herself enough to say no. Even as her fitness and life improve, she struggles to honor her own abilities, respect herself, and speak up for herself. In one searing moment, an erstwhile friend tells her, “Don’t throw away your fat clothes. It doesn’t matter if you keep the weight off. You’ll always be a fat girl. It’s who you are.” We spend the rest of the film watching Brittany grapple with those issues.

Fortunately, this movie runs a course paved with positive messages. The value of setting goals, working hard, persisting in the face of setbacks, helping others, and building support systems is made clear in the film. And a small act of kindness resonates throughout the movie, reminding us of the power we have to affect someone else’s life for the better.

Sadly, Brittany Runs a Marathon hits the wall when it comes to content. Profanity is excessive, with close to 70 swear words, including three dozen sexual expletives. Main characters also drink too much (sometimes becoming intoxicated), smoke marijuana, and abuse prescription drugs. None of these behaviors are glamorized, but they occur throughout the film. And the sexual content is more detailed than most parents would like. There is a fair bit of sexual innuendo and a scene where main characters have sex. There is no explicit nudity, but the man opens a condom package and the activity is obvious. These content issues are particularly unfortunate because they cloud an otherwise fine film. But, even though they prevent Brittany Runs a Marathon from winning the race, at least it carries its positive messages across the finish line.