Plot
Maggie Baker (Blonsky) is an overweight 17-year-old girl who suffers being taunted and ridiculed at school and badgered to lose weight by her mother (Annie Potts) who is worried she will get diabetes like her late father. The movie starts by showing what Maggie goes through every day at school. We discover that her best friend Casey (Lily Holleman) is not as unpopular as Maggie due to her relationship with one of the popular guys. Casey is invited to a party by the boy and accepts the invite on the premise that Maggie is allowed to come as well. The popular boys cringe but don't say anything. At the party Casey is dragged away by her sort of boyfriend, leaving Maggie alone to be laughed at by the preppy clique, including Liz (Liz McGeever), a very hated but feared girl at school.
Maggie gets food down the front of her shirt and retreats to the kitchen to clean it off (only after being photographed eating in an unflattering manner). From the kitchen she can see Casey and her boyfriend making out in the adjacent hallway before her friend Louis (Fabian C. Moreno) greets her. It is clear that Louis has a thing for Maggie and vice-versa. Louis leaves and Casey appears at the same time as Tara (Kimberly Matula) the sweet Queen Bee at school to wipe food off her shirt as well. Tara asks if Maggie is as klutzy as she is which Maggie confirms that she is, saying "No, my blouse was just hungry."
After she leaves Casey makes a remark about how Tara is only nice so she can win Homecoming Queen to which Maggie replies that it would be nice if she herself were to win Homecoming Queen and not somebody like Tara or her friends.
Liz overhears and decides to nominate Maggie as a joke. The joke is on her though as many students get excited about Maggie being the queen, including Tara, who is, of course, nominated herself. Maggie easily collects 150 signatures to put her on the ballot (twice as they are stolen the first time around) and becomes an official nominee. Maggie starts campaigning but gets upset one day when she sees Tara's posters out in the hallway and imagines her mom praising Tara's thinness and beauty. She runs home to find comfort food.
Meanwhile, Liz vandalizes Tara's posters so the principal will think it's Maggie and take her out of the race. The plan does not work and Tara begins to suspect that her best friend is trying to sabotage Maggie. At voting time, Maggie wins Homecoming Queen, and the popular clique is shocked and rudely sit and glare at Maggie, but Tara looks genuinely happy for the plus-sized beauty queen.
It is later revealed that Tara voted for Maggie and not herself. Maggie is bombarded with offers from the press who wish to discuss the experience with her. However, the popular kids are not ready to accept Maggie's win without a fight and plan to get her to resign. Tara's boyfriend Trip (Kyle Russell Clements) and Liz plot to ruin Maggie's homecoming float. When Maggie sits on it the float busts, making it look like Maggie's weight broke it.
Tara is outraged and breaks up with Trip. She also discovers that Liz only hangs out with her because she's popular and ends their friendship. The other popular girls stop speaking to Liz as well. Maggie goes on television to discuss her win but comes off sounding rude and ungrateful towards her friends and supporters. She has also been ignoring Casey who has been trying to ask Maggie for advice on whether or not she should consummate her relationship with her now boyfriend.
Angry, Casey spews out some harsh insults and Maggie shoves her into a row of bikes, getting herself suspended. Maggie has alienated from her friends and no longer wishes to be Homecoming Queen although the school tells her she can.
Maggie realizes that she plays the victim and that her harshest critic is herself. She decides to go through being Homecoming Queen even though the reception will most likely be bad and asks Louis to be her King. She reconciles with both her mom and Casey who eagerly cheer her on at the game. Although many people boo her a lot of people cheer for her too. Maggie realizes that she not only won Homecoming Queen but she changed herself as well.
Read more about this topic: Queen Sized
Famous quotes containing the word plot:
““The plot thickens,” he said, as I entered.”
—Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930)
“Morality for the novelist is expressed not so much in the choice of subject matter as in the plot of the narrative, which is perhaps why in our morally bewildered time novelists have often been timid about plot.”
—Jane Rule (b. 1931)
“We have defined a story as a narrative of events arranged in their time-sequence. A plot is also a narrative of events, the emphasis falling on causality. “The king died and then the queen died” is a story. “The king died, and then the queen died of grief” is a plot. The time sequence is preserved, but the sense of causality overshadows it.”
—E.M. (Edward Morgan)