Parents' Guide to Bigger

This biopic charms with its portrayal of Joe Weider as an exceptionally sincere, focused man, but it also feels overly sanitized. Hoechlin's Joe stammers when he's excited and has high expectations for everyone. He can't help but constructively critique the physiques of people he runs into in churches, on beaches -- anywhere. Bigger's version of Joe Weider is downright disarming in his directness and goodwill. But his first marriage goes by in a blink, and the daughter it produced is scrubbed from the film's history. The timeline of him meeting his second wife is also fudged, presumably to avoid questions of overlap with that first marriage. And Joe's later scandals (usually involving false or exaggerated claims related to his fitness products) are excised from this record. Instead, the film focuses on Joe's single-minded determination to make people rethink the importance of physical fitness in their lives. (Notably, the film was co-produced by Joe's nephew/Ben's son, Eric Weider.)

Details are blown by: Ben was a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, but that's mentioned only in passing here. We're told the brothers were best friends, but little of their relationship is shown. What will probably be most remembered about Bigger is how it depicts Joe's mentorship of a young Schwarzenegger, played with gusto by Von Moger. You can almost hear the governator now: "I'm much bettah loo-king than that guy!" Bottom line? If you excuse the obvious factual manipulations, Bigger succeeds as a portrait of a quirky, determined man with good intentions and strong entrepreneurial spirit. Just don't take it as a historical document.