L'Amour extra large

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.

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!!

My problem with this movie is that the two male leads are so spectacularly unattractive. The whole message is that we shouldn't judge people by their appearances, fat people are good, etc. etc. blah blah blah. Okay, fine, whatever.

But this only seems to apply to the womenfolk. Jack Black is short and pudgy with bulldog features, and Jason Alexander looks like something that's been boiled and painted. Why is their lack of attractiveness never part of the plot? Good Lord, they roam around the movie looking for babes as if they were a couple of Adonises. Both of these distinctly not good-looking guys get pursued by attractive women, and what's more, the squat four-eyes actually turns down his dolly on the grounds that she's got a long toe. (All this is later justified by his inner hurt feeling...awwwww!!)

Another sign that the movie was put together by a couple of cases of arrested development: Rosemary never stops talking about her low self-esteem, can't handle compliments, etc. yet in every second scene she's wearing something short and tight. This way Gwyneth Paltrow gets to prance around in her skimpies, and yet then we're supposed to get a big yuk-yuk when her fat body double is shown falling out of the same outfit.

I would love to see a female director redo this movie using a couple of ugly women as the leads, and then have attractive men pursue them, just as they are. Wait, I guess no one would buy that.

And one final thing: just because Rosemary was fat, they didn't have to show her constantly stuffing her face. It got to the point where she's grabbing half a cake at a time. That was just pointless and mean, and it was way beyond even a juvenile chuckle.

No contest, I will say this marks the best of the Farrelly Brothers. Not because this film is laugh-out-loud funny--it's funny, but not hilarious--but because it has a great heart and delivers a beautiful message without any corny Hollywood pretentions. Sure, the premise is funny--a shallow guy gets virtually hypnotized into thinking all the unattractive women he sees are foxes and ends up going out with a 500-pound woman who he also thinks is a fox. It's a great premise, but the Farrellys don't fixate on that premise alone, preventing it from turning it into a lame, one-joke slapstick comedy. This is a comedy with heart--a rare finding. In between laughs, you really get wrapped up in the characters and storyline. The gags flow quite naturally, without the Farrellys forcing any humor onto the screen. If a comic opportunity comes along, they take advantage, but there's no random acts of slapstick.

I am pleasantly surprised with Jack Black, who has proved in this movie that he doesn't only have what it takes as a comic actor, but also as a serious actor and a romantic lead. I've always enjoyed seeing him on screen, but he usually plays the same wound-up, hyperkinetic characters. Basically, he's funny, but you still know you're watching Jack Black on screen. This time he exercises his ability as a method actor, he succeeds well. Gwyneth Paltrow is adorable and sweet, capturing the audience's sympathy with her winning smile. Joe Viterelli is amusing as her overweight Irish father, and actually pulls off a fairly convincing Irish accent. The sizzling hot Brooke Burns makes a few appearances. And Jason Alexander is always a joy to watch.

I think "Shallow Hal" does the best job at conveying the message that beauty is on the inside. It has been conveyed before in films like "The Nutty Professor," but I feel this film conveyed it best. This could've easily been a 105-minute fat joke, but it doesn't travel that route. There are no crude or mean-spirited gags. Could it be that the Farrelly Brothers matured? Even of the films of theirs that I liked (ex.: "Dumb and Dumber," "There's Something About Mary") are a little uneven and contain a few gags that are just plain cruel. Like in "Mary," Cameron Diaz's brother is mentally ill and the butt of a few jokes. Here, we have a character that walks on both his arms and legs, but he's portrayed as a normal character, and not as a gimmick for some cheap laughs. There are moments that really tugged at my heartstrings. The "burn victim" scene brought quite a few tears to my eyes. The story is solid, with no boring lulls. And the soundtrack is pretty good--I have criticized the Farrellys in the past for using crappy music in their sountracks.

If you're looking for a good romantic/date movie with some good laughs and a good message, "Shallow Hal" will be an absolute delight.

My score: 8 (out of 10)

It's easy to laugh at this film, because the jokes are so broad, but it's equally easy to be offended. The issue I have with the movie is that, in the course of making the point that we should see the inner-beauty in fat people, the Farrellys are implying that by being overweight you are universally ugly. In fact, in the world of Shallow Hal, if you are fat, you are a well-meaning mammoth who couldn't possibly be fancied unless under hypnosis or after an epiphany.

The movie also seems to suggest that the friends of fat people are ugly, and that uglies keep each other's company because no one else will want to associate with them, which is another reinforcement of social divisions. All of Rosemary's (Paltrow) friends are, as we see at the end, equally fat or gross or otherwise physically undesirable. Most disturbingly, the Farrellys undermine the inner-beauty point they've spent $40 million trying to make through Hal, because Hal's friends betray the judgmental reality. When his buddies see Rosemary for what she is, i.e. grossly fat, they are universally horrified in a "what are you doing with her?" way, which carries a more powerful punch than any of the tepid attempts to suggest she's beautiful because of her personality (moulded, we are told, by years of personal abuse because of her size).

The overall message is correct - inner beauty is ultimately what counts, because a sparkling character will outlast youthful good looks by decades. But the Farrelly's have approached the subject in a way that actually insults, rather than genuinely educates. It's not going to uplift anyone who's overweight, it'll just depress them. The majority of the film perpetuates the idea that being fat or ugly makes you a pariah or the object of sympathy or vulgar fascination.

There are some sweet moments, and a few laughs, so the movie's not a wholly worthless experience. But in the process of making its (valid) point it reinforces, rather than rejects, stereotypes.