Released in 2001, Catherine Breillat's Fat Girl left many critics confounded. For eighty-one minutes of its eighty-six minute running time, the film is a quiet coming of age story of two teenage sisters. Unexpectedly, however, the film ends with a random act of violence: a bloody axe murder, strangulation and rape. This sudden turn to extremes incited a mixture of bewilderment and frustration in reviewers. Describing Breillat's move here as ‘an astounding misstep’, Bob Strauss (2001) of the Los Angeles Daily News states:

Katrina Onstad's (2003) review in the National Post also expresses frustration at the seemingly illogical rupture in narrative. Describing the moment at which Breillat ‘tacks on a five minute ending’ that undermines the otherwise careful neorealism of the film, Onstad finds the turn to violence ‘frustratingly – dangerously, even – open ended in meaning’, labelling it ‘an extreme cop out’. Similarly confused, Carla Meyer's (2001) review in the San Francisco Chronicle states that despite being ‘undeniably riveting, the scene is so out of step with Breillat's otherwise careful plotting that it comes off as a stunt’. For Peter Bradshaw (2001) of The Guardian, the violence constitutes ‘a shocking but empty gesture’, stating, ‘the effect of this grotesque eruption following what had been a very well-observed and well-acted human drama is baffling’.