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Don't be confused by the subject matter of this comedy, this is a very touching movie.

A Shallow man (Jack Black) is obsessed with only dating beautiful women, until he is hypnotised in to only seeing the inner beauty of people he meets. He then meets Rosemarie (Gwyneth Paltrow) and falls in love

This was Jack Blacks first lead role. After roles in 'Cable Guy' and 'Enemy Of The State' and a very good supporting role in 'High Fidelity and he is perfectly cast as the title character. Until 'School Of Rock' two years later, this was his best performance. Oscar winner Gwyneth Paltrow seems to be having fun, and she looks great in a thong. However for me I would have preferred to see her in the fat suit more, to highlight what everyone else was seeing.... But I suppose you don't pay millions to have Gwyneth Paltrow in a movie, and have her hide in a fat suit for the majority of the movie.

Jason Alexender is very annoying (as Blacks bitter best friend, who is annoyed at losing his wing man on nights out) and distracting with his bizarre hairline.

It's silly if course (it's a Farrelly brothers movie) but it's also very very sweet!!

From the posters and trailers, you'd expect the Farrelly Brothers to be crude and offensive with this kind of material but it really isn't. It has a much deeper message than it appears. It knows when to be funny and knows when to be serious. Why so many people disliked it and why critics panned it is totally beyond me!

The movie is about a man named Hal, played by Jack Black, who judges women based on their looks. He keeps failing at it and his attractive neighbor, Jill, even turns him down after he begs her to go out with him. The next day at his job, he's bummed that he didn't get that big promotion and happens to bump into Tony Robbins in the elevator while leaving his work. They get stuck in the elevator and Hal explains him his love life. Robbins then puts a spell on him to see the inner beauty in women so that he can judge a woman based on her personality. Suddenly, things starts to change for Hal. His best friend Mauricio (played by Jason Alexander) notices Hal's fresh new standards with his taste in women and doesn't like it one bit. Hal then begins dating a woman who is overweight named Rosemary, played by Gwyneth Paltrow. He sees her as a beautiful, petite woman and they hit it off. Mauricio, who is much more picky with women and more shallow than Hal, can't believe it.

That's the plot for you and I won't spoil anything, but let's just say that the story is predictable and the characters are memorable. I can't give the cast enough credit for doing such a wonderful job and it's interesting to see Jack Black like you've never seen him before, departing from his usual slacker/stoner role that he's given. Shallow Hal is a movie with a lot of brains and heart to it, as well as a great date movie. There's more to this movie than it appears, so watch it before you say negative things about it and you may be surprised!

I had heard all of the critical talk about this film portraying women badly in this film months before it even came out. Generally being turned off to stereotypical plots I was very hesitant to see this movie. Of course all of my friends totally loved this movie. They thought it was sweet and charming and bashed the critics for thinking that it was demeaning to any one type of social group because they felt that since Hal chose to be with Rosemary at the end of the film that that meant that the movie itself was teaching everyone some great beautiful lesson about how you can see the beauty within. Well being a plus size girl myself (Im a size 16-and cute to boot hehe)I made myself watch this movie, and all I can say is that, I beg to differ.

To be fair I do think the Farrelly brothers were trying to send a positive message here. I don't think that their intent was to degrade anyone, but they ended up making the movie a hypocritical mess. Not only did they portray "Ugly" woman as fat with bad skin and big noses,they also portrayed "Beautiful" women as being mega-bitches with a whip. As if we women (and men) don't have enough to feel self conscious about.

I mean think about it. Jack Black, while being a very funny guy and good actor, just isn't "conventionally" Hollywood attractive. But he loved Rosemary. Which is great, however they would never think about putting let's say, Brad Pitt in as playing Hal and have him running off with an obese woman in the end. So therefore Obese women can only get someone like Jack Black to love them???

The other stereotype that irritated the crap out of me was that, not only was Rosemary obese, but she was also a glutton. As if ALL big women eat 5 course meals every time we sit at the table. Anyways, just a big peeve there.

The point is, that everyone knows that movies and Hollywood set this impossible standard on how women and men should look and everyone here admits it's wrong, yet people still feel they have to alter themselves to be something that they are not. I feel that this movie, while trying to mean well...exacerbates this concept and causes hurt feelings.

A valiant effort of the F-Bros part, but it just didn't cut the mustard with me. Sorry

Do you judge a person - particularly a woman - by her outward appearance? If you do, you're "shallow" and that's the message played out in this comedy.

The humor in here is good, very funny in spots. There are plenty of jokes and sight gags. If you are obese and very sensitive, then skip this film because you won't appreciate some of the humor in this film. But, if you can laugh at yourself, you'll enjoy it too - and especially the message this film brings.

Jack Black was pretty much of an unknown actor when this came out, but he's well-known now after School Of Rock, King Kong and other films. Gwyneth Paltrow everyone knows. She looked very pretty in here, maybe the best I've ever seen her. Jason Alexander and Joe Viterelli provide good supporting help. By the way, it was strange hearing Viterelli with an Irish accent. This is a guy who almost always plays Mafia types.

The only thing offensive to me was the beginning with some irreverent humor that was not needed, not part of the story, just a cheap shot against ministers. Also, for a lightweight comedy, the profanity could have been less. Can't someone make a modern-day comedy without language and sex issues? I wish someone would at least try. It can be done - just look at the classics!

Anyway, this is still a pretty funny story with, of course, a good message about judging a book by its cover.

Paltrow's pretty good here, I enjoyed this movie a lot. Not great but certainly good, carries a nice message and it's a good premise.

However, a lot of people did get offended by this. The movie kind of does that to itself-though the theme here is "everybodys' beautiful" etc etc and meant to look at how much women are judged by their looks, the movie wasn't as bold as it could have been. If it REALLY wanted to take hold of this issue there would have been more of the "heavy paltrow" not just a few quick shots. Shows the thin paltrow a lot more and it shouldn't. Does anyone get the feeling the movie was almost afraid of it's own subject matter? That's what takes the "oomph" out of the movie and makes it a sweet little picture rather then an outstanding film. Still, it's OK-I know many people, both heavy and thin who saw this, most were not offended by the picture but had the movie aimed for serious movie making instead of predictable Hollywood fare(the former would have been more appropriate for the subject matter at hand) the movie would have been a lot better.