Publication Date: 01-17-2026

Phat Girlz (2006) review

Dir. Nnegest Likké

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★½

The word “Phat” in Phat Girlz really should’ve been acronymized to “P.H.A.T.,” seeing as the colloquialism is shorthand for “pretty hot and thick.” That’s the least of this borderline insufferable comedy’s problems, but it also wouldn’t have functioned as a pejorative for its lead, Mo’Nique, and her character. She is far too effervescent for material that barely registers fizz in the realm of excitement.

Writer/director Nnegest Likké might’ve had her heart in the right place when it came to conceptualizing a reworking of the Cinderella formula featuring a plus-sized woman, who seldom get humanistic fairytale stories of their own (especially in 2006). But Likké’s film is so depressingly juvenile and simple-minded. Nearly every line of dialog and interpersonal conversation deals with weight, food, being overweight, and/or body image, leaving no room for any humanity to show itself. It would help if the defining trait of Mo’Nique’s Jazmin was something more loving besides the fact that she’s heavyset.

Jazmin is a fashion designer whose talents are criminally underutilized at a generic departments store frequented by the posh. She dreams of opening her own boutique and starting her own clothing line, but the overlords at First Plantation Bank won’t approve her for a significant loan. She does, however, win an all-expense-paid trip to Palm Springs, where her chunky friend Stacey (Kendra C. Johnson) and sassy cousin Mia (Joyful Drake) join her to sunbathe poolside. Enter Tunde (Jimmy Jean-Louis), a toned, silver-tongued Nigerian doctor who adores voluptuous ladies like Jazmin. He teaches her to love every inch of her body, as being thick signifies wealth and exudes beauty in the doctor’s homeland.

Ironically, it’s Phat Girlz that feels malnourished. So much of the drama here revolves around weight to the point where Likké’s attempt at female empowerment falls gravely short. When Jazmin says lines like, “I ain’t fat. I’m sexy succulent,” it sounds like a saying you’d read on a T-shirt at Target. The depths of Phat Girlz‘s insights aren’t even skin deep; they’re akin to fast fashion.

One of the “Queens of Comedy,” and well worthy of a piece of the crown, Mo’Nique does her thing admirably. She’s such an endearing force of charisma and energy that she makes an otherwise pathetically contrived sequence of her sulking and binge-eating in bed somewhat sad. In fact, it would be extremely contrived had it not been for a forced conflict between Jazmin and Tunde that could’ve been resolved if the logical outcome of their conversation didn’t have to mercifully stall the plot and elongate the runtime another 45 minutes. Phat Girlz is full of flab, dead weight, and empty calories.

Starring: Mo’Nique, Jimmy Jean-Louis, Kendra C. Johnson, Joyful Drake, and Godfrey. Directed by: Nnegest Likké.