Initially Lizzie is crushed, but then she decides to fight. Born prematurely, the Texas-based Lizzie is brutalized early on in life when an online bully dubs her the ugliest woman in the world and others get on board suggesting she kill herself. On the one hand, it’s a character study, a journey of victimization to triumph. The movie is further hindered by its ambition, which is fuzzy at best. Documentaries about the genetically damaged still feel like exploitation, Lizzie’s happy participation notwithstanding. Some viewers may indeed be inspired by Lizzie, but an equal number might find the movie virtually impossible to watch, or worse view the film as an opportunity for a little rubber-necking. Nonetheless, director Sara Hirsh Bordo, who clearly sees Lizzie as an inspiration, is straddling a thin line. She has found a place for herself-after a lifetime of bullying and abuse-and one is pleased for her. In fact, she’s an anti-bullying lobbyist who has testified before Congress, and she enjoys an international reputation as a motivational speaker with a huge following. She’s also self-assured, articulate, and enjoys being in the public eye. It’s not that 26-year-old Lizzie, who weighs 63 pounds, is anything but good-humored and optimistic. Patients diagnosed with this condition may be emaciated (simply unable to gain weight) and unnaturally long-limbed, with oversized heads, skinny faces, beaked noses, bulbous eyes and severely wrinkled skin that would be unusual on an 85-year-old.
Velasquez is not a fictional character, but a living human being who has been afflicted with Marfan’s Syndrome, a rare and horrific genetic disorder, which causes kidney, lung and heart disease (that may result in an early death) and is monstrously disfiguring. A Brave Heart: The Lizzie Velasquez Story is an exceedingly difficult documentary to review.
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