Forethought: I wanted to watch a genuine comedy. The one that will ensure a few lighter moments amidst the mad rush that life has become of late. So when someone suggested Shallow Hal, I just picked it up without too many doubts. The reason - Gwyneth Paltrow and the Farrelly Brothers who had a decent track record with movies like “There is Something About Mary” and “Dumb and the Dumber.”
Running time: One hour forty four minutes
Rating: PG-13 (Parental guidance required, Offensive language and sexual content)
The Plot:
A young Hal gets an advice from his dad who is on his death bed –“Never settle for anyone ordinary as your life partner”. So when Hal grows up into not so attractive looking, four feet guy (a part that is reasonably well performed by Jack Black ), he along with his friend ( Jason Alexander ) go bar-hopping, to catch the best looking lady. He is however rejected by most people whom he considers good enough, even his own next door neighbor ( Susan Ward ) does not really warm up to his advances.
Once in an elevator, Hal chances to meet a motivational speaker who tries telling him how shallow his approach to women has been and soon hypnotically brainwashes him in to looking at the heart of person than the body. Due to the transformation he undergoes, Hal starts looking at women from a new angle (literally)….and to him the fattest of women appear to be slim and the ugliest look pretty just because they have a good heart.
Gwyneth Paltrow who is Rosemary, the obese chair breaking (repeated too often to be funny) daughter of Hal’s Boss ( Joe Viterelli ), with a golden heart, appears to be the slimmest of them all and Hal flips for her. All this, while his friend, tries to explain to Hal that Rosemary is not what he thinks she is.
How does his friend convince Hal of the reality, how does Hal react to the truth and what is going to happen to the relationship between Hal and Rosemary is the rest of the story.
The Opinion:
Hypocrisy!! Was the first word that sprung to my mind while watching the movie and afterwards. What the movie attempted to convey as a message was drowned by the excesses it has committed. If the movie was trying to say that beauty lies in heart, why did it have to show that all beautiful women have to look thin… why not let Hal look at Fat women and find her beautiful even when fat . Also the scenes where the chairs break and fat women are shown in skimpiest of outfits are in poor taste and do not pass away as comedy in my opinion.
The plot is pretty ordinary; you won’t be kept on your seats edge to find what is going to happen next. Also there are a lot of flaws in the way the movie is made. For example after talking to the motivational speaker, Hal starts seeing people’s heart rather than their body. Like I said earlier people start appearing slim/ beautiful/fat/ugly etc based on their hearts rather than their external appearance. But while all those who come into his life for the first time look different to Hal, people whom he already knows appear to be the same, no matter how good or bad they are internally.
The comedy is not really striking at any point. Yes, there are a couple of scenes that evoke a chuckle but they are few and far in between. At most times the movie seems to be laughing at people with obesity with remarks like the “rhino” used to describe them. Sad that a movie that attempts to say that beauty lies in heart has to stoop to such dirty tricks in the name of comedy.
The photography and music are pretty good. The make up is commendable. Gwyneth Paltrow is wonderful in both the roles. But on the whole the movie failed to impress me.
Afterthought: I don’t want to be branded as a hypocrite. I love looking at good looking women or for that matter anything that is beautiful. But that in no way means that I can laugh at people who are not good looking. To brand a category of people on the basis of their color, race, appearance as laughing stock is not my idea of a comedy. The movie was repulsive at times but I kept watching hoping for something really good to come through...which unfortunately never happened.