Shallow Hal
-Joel Zawada
- Page 1 of 1
| |
|
The Farrelly Brothers, who wrote and directed the likeably offensive There's Something About Mary, jump started the gross-out comedy boom of the past few years. Sadly they have since been left competing with the slew of imitators their take-no-prisoners style inspired, which should prove to be an easy task. In their quest to be the most shocking and offbeat in an industry that keeps pushing the lines of taste, the Farrellys have resorted to the same sloppy, unfocused, and contrived gags spewed out by their hangers-on.
The duo's latest effort, Shallow Hal, uses a heartfelt story of seeing the true beauty in others as little more than a backdrop for a never-ending series of fat jokes. When the titular character (Jack Black of "Tenacious D" fame) is hypnotized by motivational speaker Tony Robbins into seeing a person's inner beauty, he falls for the gorgeous Rosemary (Gwyneth Paltrow, Sliding Doors); a nurse in a pediatric burn unit and Peace Corps member, not realizing that she is, in fact, extremely overweight.
Hal's co-workers ("Tenacious D" co-star Kyle Gass and comic Laura Kightlinger) believe he's only dating Rosemary because she's the boss's daughter. Hal's equally immature roommate Mauricio (Jason Alexander) can't understand his best friend's newfound attraction to "a rhino," but all his attempts to mention her considerable weight are misunderstood by the smitten Hal in some extremely "Three's Company" dialogues. Even Rosemary herself remains unbelieving, years of self-hatred shielding her from the prospect of love.
The two do fall in love, during a short montage of sight gags about Rosemary's weight that sets up the second half of the film. Mauricio, terrified by the prospect of losing his best friend, tracks down Tony Robbins, who attempts to stop up a boatload of plot loopholes by explaining the bullshit science behind the film's central conceit. He also gives Mauricio the trigger phrase to turn Hal back to normal, which ends up ruining everything. While this actually implies that people are better off living in ignorance, the moral we're force-fed is that only true beauty matters.
Which doesn't explain why Hal's gorgeous neighbor Jill (The In Crowd's gorgeous Susan Ward) remains beautiful throughout the film. Wouldn't that mean the she was actually the girl for Hal?
Contradictions such as this abound in the film, like the transvestite restaurant hostess who appears as a woman to Hal while he's in "inner beauty only" mode. Why would true beauty affect gender? Moreover, why is that the only man the vision works on? Why are the superficial girls Hal chases at the dance clubs seen as being just as good looking before and after, when the implication the movie keeps making is that only people who work with retards or starving Ethiopians are good people?
That's right, a tail. If the albino in Me, Myself, and Irene wasn't the bottom of the barrel, then this truly is.
Jack Black has a knack for stealing any scene he's in with the simple raising of an eyebrow or the inspired delivery of an otherwise-throwaway line, a talent that's painfully underused here. He's at his finest when Hal is fast-talking or tearing up the dance floor, but his unique style of comedy doesn't mesh well with the demands of a leading role. Often, he seems to be choking on sugary dialogue that's miles beneath him.
The emotional depth conveyed by Paltrow in the first half of the film is destroyed when she dons fat suit and a considerable amount of foam rubber to actually look overweight. The prosthetics never come across as anything more than beautiful Gwyneth Paltrow playing dress-up, and the delicate and vulnerable character she was playing turns into a hideous caricature of a fat girl.
Shallow Hal does have many truly touching moments of honest emotion from Rosemary, as well as the shocking sight of a 7-year-old burn victim, but they are quickly dismissed with a broken chair, a large amount of food, or an enormous pair of panties, which is a fine example of the film's inherent problem.
Peter and Bobby Farrelly are just as shallow and immature as their title character, but unlike Hal, they refuse to let their view of the world change.
They refuse to grow up.
(3 out of 8)