My recent spat with a god’s-gift-to-mankind reminded me of this movie coz before him I’d never thought there was any guy who could be as Shallow as Hal ! Thought it’d be a good movie to review on MS. Here is what I liked in the film
Born to be Shallow !
Question : If given a choice would you prefer a woman with only one breast or half a brain?
Hal : How big is the breast?
This is the quick response our hero Hal has given to a think-before-u-reply question. Its easy to notice that Hal (Jack Black) is about as shallow as they come. Nope, don’t blame poor Hal for being such a shallow fellow, blame it on his father who before dying gives on this marvelous piece of advise to his 9-year-old son Hal, to date only pretty young women [’’Hot young tail’’ are his exact words]. Being the obedient son that he is, Hal grows up with the notion that the shape of a woman’s figure & the size of her chest should be the major concerns when choosing a partner.
Man in the Mirror
The amazing twist here is Hal himself is no Adonis himself - a middle aged, fat, average looking guy - he is the guy who is looking for women but none of the women are looking for him & who won’t give them the time of day ! Hal is blissful unaware of his ’magic’ & is kept company by his best friend, Mauricio (Jason ’’George’’ Alexander), who is even more pigheaded than Hal - he breakups with a beautiful girl coz she has ugly toes!- So both friends are pretty much in the same boat, consoling each other & squandering their life in futile pursuit of beautiful women.
Magic is in the air..........er.... in the lift?
One day, Hal is stuck in an elevator with self-help guru Tony Robbins, who is first aghast at Hal’s thinking about women but then understanding Hal’s predicament with women, Tony decides to give him a gift - he hypnotizes Hal so that when he meets a woman, Hal would not see her physical appearance but her inner beauty. As a result of this Hal wakes up to the inner grace of those around him, everyone looks beautiful to him - The brain sees what the heart wants it to feel.
I can’t help falling in love with you
Soon Hal meets Rosemary (Gwyneth Paltrow), a stunning lissome blonde who surprises Hal when she responds to his interest in her & they start dating. Hal later learns that Rose is boss’s daughter & also a social worker who helps sick children in a hospital, it doesn’t take long for Hal to fall totally in love with Rose. For Hal, she is the most beautiful girl he has ever known, everything that he has been looking for in the woman of his dreams.
Reality Bites
It is only a matter of time before Hal sees Rose as she actually is -- as we have seen her throughout the film. In truth the girl Hal adores is a 300-pounder with giant legs & droopy jowls, in simple words Rosemary is obese. How will Hal behave when he comes out of his trance? Will he drop the stuck-up qualifications that he looked in everywoman & accept Rose? hmmmm............. what do you think?
The Film/ Performances
This funny movie with a simple message is directed by Peter & Bobby Farrelly, who have earlier made films like ’’There’s Something About Mary’’, “Me, Myself and Irene” & Dumb & Dumber. The characters of these films have been ’’different’’ - some deformed, disabled or plain stupid - but besides making us laugh with the antics in their movies, the Farrellys have tried to deliver their message that it’s OKAY to be ’’different’’. Since this films deals with a obese heroine who to the hero seems to be thin, there are many scenes of fat jokes which - if taken in the light spirit- make the movie cute & laughable : one particularly cute scene is when Rose goes canoeing with Hal & her weight tips his end of the boat out of the water !
Jack Black as Hal is perfecto for the role of a person who is so entangled in his own perception of beauty that in his search for the perfect woman, he is often insensitive to the feelings of others.
In her sometimes thin & sometimes fat role, Gwyneth Paltrow delivers an enchanting performance. She is a natural charmer & even in the specially designed fat suit with tonnes of makeup to make her look fat, Paltrow manages to steal the scene with her cute smile. Together Black & Paltrow have a charm that makes this film a pleasant watch.
Surprisingly, the only actor who doesn’t look suitable for his role is Jason Alexander- famous as George in the hit comedy series Seinfield- here he plays Hal’s best friend but even if we ignore his horrendous toupee, we cannot bear his performance which is way too loud.
My Word
The film is full of fat jokes but at the sametime it also deals with goodness & inner beauty. Cynical viewers [read : those who have no sense of humour] would see this as a film that makes fun of obese people & such people would naturally miss the message of this film. One is reminded of many of those old proverbs about beauty lies in the eye of the beholder or beauty being skin deep, don’t judge a book by its cover. This is truly the message of the film.
I don’t know if this is the message that was intended but I felt that the other message in this film is more about men, those types who would judge other people based on looks. But I guess we do need to have such pigheaded ’’Hals’’ around coz it is people like Hal that make us thankful for the few nice men we know :)
Overall, this is a sweet, sometimes dumb & far-fetched romantic comedy but hey ! If we can watch [and love] a movie like Shrek then why not a Shallow man...... I mean a film like Shallow Hal !