"We know that the road to freedom has always been stalked by death." ---HL Staff that went to Rome---

Shallow Hal
reviewed by: ReelReviewz@aol.com

MOVIE BIASES: The trailers have been interesting, if not amusing, but just what exactly am I laughing at?

MAJOR PLAYERS: Jack Black (High Fidelity), Gwyneth Paltrow (Bounce), Jason Alexander (TV's "Bob Patterson"), and co-writers/directors Bobby & Peter Farrelly.

Inside every fat woman, there's a thin woman dying to get out. Or at least that's what the Farrelly Brothers would like to have you believe. If you're okay with that basic premise, then you'll adore "Shallow Hal." Even though they (have to) promote seeing someone for their inner beauty, the Farrellys walk a slippery slope of comic and moral rectitude that makes you wonder - along with the rest of the film - just what exactly are you laughing at.

Hal Larsen (Black) is a pudgy, generous, all-around nice guy who has one flaw fatale - he's as deep as an Arizona riverbed. Thanks to a dying wish from his father, Hal only chases the hotties who, for some strange reason, do not chase him back. After being stuck in an elevator with motivational speaking guru Tony Robbins (woodenly playing himself), Hal is entranced to start seeing people only for their inner beauty, as opposed to their outer. When Hal falls for Rosemary (Paltrow), a Peace Corps worker who volunteers at a hospital, it's obvious that he's fallen for the beautiful, skinny version of herself. Seeing his friend fall for a fatty, Mauricio (Alexander), a similarly flawed, overcompensating, bad toupee-wearing male, sets out to straighten out Hal's vision before he falls in love and it's too late.

Jack Black, in his first lead role, does an affable job as playing the lovable loser Hal. Although a couple of his quirky choices and mannerisms get annoying at times, you pretty much stick with him through his deplorable (yet partially believable) character arc. Jason Alexander is fine as the wading-pool shallow Mauricio (who has a nasty, if not hilarious, um…appendage) and Paltrow, as always, stays above it all with her nuanced, self-protective take on Rosemary, a fat girl who has always been ridiculed instead of romanced.

The problem I have with this film is that it has an impossible premise to pull off. On one hand, the majority of the skinny to normal size populace is supposed to laugh at the blatant fat jokes (Rosemary displacing a kid and a pool full of water; Rosemary's sitting down breaking not one, but two chairs; Rosemary's ridiculously "healthy" eating habits), but on the other hand we're supposed to feel sorry for the same person that we've been laughing at for the past hour and a half, to believe that once Hal gets his perception readjusted, he is actually going to love the woman inside. And we all know how it is going to end, how it HAS to end, to appease our politically correct psyches in the interest of all that is just and moral and right.

I'm sorry, I just don't buy it. While "Shallow Hal" does a great job of exposing the politics that come with dating someone who is obese, up until the last few scenes, Hal seems to be more in love with the thin IMAGE of Rosemary in his head than with Rosemary herself. And let's not even get into the physical inconsistencies of the main conceit when Hal has sex with Rosemary. You would think that even with Hal's distorted perception of Rosemary, he would notice the physical difference between a woman who weighs a buck and change versus one who is pushing three bills. The Farrellys heart may be in the right place, but this is one premise that even they have a weighty challenge trying to pull off.


@@@ REELS (THREE REELS)
It's pretty hot - go give it a shot.
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BIASES: mid 20s black male; frustrated screenwriter who favors action, comedy, and glossy, big budget movies over indie flicks, kiddie flicks, and weepy Merchant Ivory fare
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