Amore a prima svista

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.

"Shallow Hal" should be a harmless little morality play on finding inner beauty. It is, instead, a mean spirited film that seems to confirm all the things it preaches against.

Fat jokes and stereotypes abound; and may even have been funny if not so utterly far fetched. In one particularly stupid segment, the fat girl is so heavy she breaks her seat at a restaurant. Dumb, unkind and unlikely. Thirty minutes later: fat girl breaks another chair at a different restaurant.

How is Hal supposed to get beyond the unattractive fat? The fat girl herself thinks she's unattractive. Her father also says she's unattractive. At least Hal is shallow. What's Dad's excuse?

Fat people also have no manners. When offered a slice of cake, Rosemary breaks off one-third, grabs it in her bare hand, and walks off through her Dad's office. Do the Farrelly's really think this is how obese people behave? This may fly in "Dumb and Dumber", but Paltrow's character is far from dumb, she is after all educated and affluent.

To show us none of us is above being petty and judgmental, the Farrelly's use a character with crippled, withered legs which drag behind him as he walks, doubled over on his hands. The device is particularily jarring. This characters big joke comes when during a road trip fuel stop when Hal asks why he's donning rubber gloves. "Have you ever walked across a gas station restroom on with your bare hands," he replies. Makes me long for the sophistication of "American Pie."

"Shallow Hal" has it's moments of brilliance, offering a look at the world from some radically different perspectives. But those moments are too few. Sitting through this movie left me with the same feeling I get when I hear a racist joke or see someone ridiculed.

Perhaps the working title was "Hateful Hal." I can't understand why people get so uptight about sex and nudity, when something obscene as this little flick slip under the radar.

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!

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)