The Girl Most Likely To...

Last night, I watched one of my favorite movies ever, the 1973 made-for-TV dark comedy, "The Girl Most Likely To..." starring Stockard Channing as Miriam Knight.

I love this movie. I hadn't seen it for years. I couldn't tell you how many years; it seems they stopped airing it on television when I was barely out of my teens. My mother shares my love for this movie. It's always been one of those connections we have - neither has to explain to the other what it is about ourselves that we see in Miriam. Having discovered weeks ago that the movie was finally released on DVD recently, I snapped up two copies, one for mom and one for me. After Christmas, Mom told me that all these years, she had been secretly searching for a copy for me. It was time again to visit with Miriam.

Miriam Knight is an overweight, frankly ugly girl, trying to find love and a social life in college. She is ridiculed and embarrassed time and again, culminating in particular humiliation the night of her debut in the school play. After a car accident, plastic surgery, and a liquid diet while in bandages, Miriam emerges a beautiful young woman with an enviable figure. Newly attractive - and, as ever, wickedly intelligent and clever, Miriam exacts revenge on those who hurt her the most and finally gets her man: one who loves her for her mind.

I've never been the overweight and ugly girl. I have, however, been the skinny and ugly girl. Hopelessly awkward, physically and socially, I was inept at everything except my studies. Like Miriam, I was the donkey end of the other kids' jokes. I was Miriam Knight without her pride and courage. There is a perverse and macabre delight to be taken in Miriam's exploits, the underdog's urge to cheer one of her own kind, our baser instincts darkly satisfied with the comeuppances meted out to the beautiful cruel.

For all of us who have been ugly, imperfect, humiliated and tormented, a toast to Miriam and her wicked cleverness, avenger for the wronged.