Shallow Hal is a comedy starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Jack Black

SHALLOW HAL
Stars:
Gwyneth Paltrow, Jack Black, Jason Alexander
Rated: PG-13
Score: 3/10

The concept of "Shallow Hal" is appealing. A hypnotic suggestion forces a very shallow man with high standards in women's physical appearance, to see the inner beauty. Yet I couldn't help but cringe as the Farrally brothers push another offbeat comedy, yet this time with more sentimentality. But it was like mixing oil and water.

Jack Black plays Hal, a very self confident guy, not intimidated to approach any knockout because he refuses to settle for less. Yet in his pursuit, along with his friend (played by Jason Alexander) they can never find happiness. They're so consumed with the idea that happiness comes in a pretty package. And one day Hal is trapped in an elevator with a self help guru who hypnotizes him to see the inner beauty reflected on the outside. The problem with this is that every ugly girl became a knockout and every beautiful girl appeared as an oaf. It's not very likely that every ugly women is beautiful inside and every beautiful woman is ugly inside. Not to mention how can you even tell if a person is beautiful or ugly inside from just seeing them walk down the street?

And suddenly Hal can get any woman, he doesn't realize that what he's seeing is illusion, and for the first time he's meeting women who are intelligent and funny and have all the qualities that he desires. One day he meets Rosemary (played by Gwyneth Paltrow) and falls in love. She's everything he desires by his friend keeps trying to convince him that she's a whale. Basically here is where alot of really painful fat gags are introduced. (ie: lots of comments, chairs constantly breaking and bending) I wanted to cringe, not because i'm politically correct but because it just seemed the movie adding the sentimentality justified the fat jokes. So much so that by the end of the film I really didn't care about the characters, or if they were in love, if Hal learned a life lesson, whatever. While the concept of the film is to teach us that beauty is skin deep and it's what's inside that counts, it didn't do well by using the film to basically make fun of overweight people, ugly people, even phsyically challenged people. But then, these ARE the Farrally brothers. Maybe they should stick more to straight comedy. I need a movie to preach to me about the shallowness of our society like i need a hole in the head. Only one scene made me tear up, and it had nothing to do with the main characters but some children in a burn unit. In the end, Shallow Hal was simply.... Shallow.