Shallow Hal is one really good movie. It is funny, but it is not always laugh-out-loud, let’s- get- as-crude-as-possible sort of movie. If anything, it just might be the gentlest thing the Farrelly Brothers ever did. Before I get carried away, here is the plot:
Hal (Jack Black) is a shallow guy. As much as you would sometimes want to call him a jerk, “shallow” describes him much better, as he is very in humane in shallowness. After all, he is a guy who just wants to be with as many hot women as he can. It doesn’t really matter whether he is a hunk, he just wants hot women. And while we- and I mean women- may not be that aggressive in showing it, we do want hot dates. Don’t give me that I’m- all- too –deep- for- this- line- of- thinking- attitude; even for a second. Just do me a favor and consider these two hypothetical options:
– There are two men who want you. They are both good guys, fun to be around and you have loads in common. But one of them is not attractive at all in your standards. The other is gorgeous. Which one would you pick? Assume they both want you. Neither has a bad bone in their body. Admit, it you’d go for the gorgeous one. Some women would go the other way, not because they are deeper but because they wouldn’t feel secure, as their boyfriend would get so desired by other women and they wouldn’t feel comfortable. This is not deep. This is called having issues.
So, can readers of both sexes be honest with me? You can be a nice person and you can place all the importance you want on personality. But given the choice between pretty and ugly (pretty and ugly in your terms) and assuming everything else is equal, you’d choose pretty. It may not be a great human trait, but unfortunately it is sort of imprinted on us. Blame whoever, whatever you want but it is there.
So, Hal, despite being a totally average-looking guy, wants to date babes. And it is screwing with his life because a hot girl won’t generally go for Hal. Let me “shallow” here. The moment Hal started appreciating hotness over everything, all I could think was,” Dude, look in the mirror! You are way too short, you need to lose like 15 pounds, get at least 5 pounds in muscle, and you don’t exactly have the prettiest face!”. Of course as you watch Hal and see him transform, you start to find him cute. Oh yeah, he can be sweet. He can look nice. Still, Jack Black or Clive Owen? Answer me. Exactly.
And then there is his much less attractive and much more shallow friend Mauricio (Jason Alexander, aka George Costanza of Seinfeld). He is even worse than Hal. But something changes drastically when Hal gets stuck in an elevator with self-help guru Tony Robbins (played by Tony Robbins himself). Tony notices Hal is totally looking at the wrong things, but is a nice guy inside. So he sort of hypnotizes him into seeing only the inner beauty of people. So if a person is nice, she will look like a babe to him. She will look like a babe to Hal, even if she is ugly and/or very fat.
That’s why obese Rosemary (Gwyneth Paltrow) looks like an extremely fit woman with a really good body to Hal. Of course to everybody else in society, she is fat and not so attractive. Mauricio is terrified as he can’t understand the sudden changes in his best friend. So even though Hal is head over heels with Rosemary, Mauricio makes sure he finds a way for Robbins to take the whole thing back. But what happens if he can reverse it? Hal will see a fat woman whose personality he is in love with…Tough call, right? And yeah, she is borderline fat- not just plump or a little heavy. She is fat enough to have health problems due to her weight, fat enough to break some solid chairs and sofas.
Despite appearances, this is not a shallow movie. It is done by humane people with the deepest of intentions. We keep our own superficial tendencies in check and hope Hal will make the right decision- the right romantic comedy decision, that is- to be with Rosemary at all costs.
We all judge books by their covers whether we want to admit it or not. Farrelly Brothers just have brought a nice little twist to the thing. Yes, more often than not, we don’t care about the looks that much if we are in love. But how do you get past that until you are in love? Do you really need a hypnosis or just some faith? And what is the guarantee that person who is not beautiful in your sense of the word is not superficial? Would he/she still go for you if you weighed 100 pounds higher? 200 pounds higher? 100 pounds lower? With virtually no breasts? With no hair? With absolutely 0 taste in clothes? Multiply and diversify the examples. But make sure you think about it….
And then again, there is the notion that we do want to be considered pretty, inside out. Who here wants to be considered ugly by the person they are attracted to? No one. You wouldn’t probably care if the rest of the world thought you were average, but the person you want, should think you are beautiful/handsome, right?
This is a lovely romantic/comedy/drama and a lot less crude than Me,Myself and Irene, The Heart Break Kid or There is Something About Mary. Even the fat jokes feel like they are there to make fun of Hal and not Rosemary. See this, no matter how you see yourself. No matter how you think others see you. You will feel good.
Other Movies of Peter and Bobby Farrelly
Back to Shallow Hal…
And yes, it has unrealistic parts. So what? It makes nice points, sometimes at the price of looking overly optimistic and/or naïve. 6/10 on IMDB. I think it should get at least a 7 for all the decent jokes (and there are many!), making amends for the way we are, showing how things should be and making you laugh all the same…
A Perfect Murder starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Viggo Mortensen and Michael Douglas
Shallow Hal on Amazon.com
