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Shallow Hal starring Jack Black and Gwyneth Paltrow

Posted on July 14, 2010 Written by ripitup

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Shallow Hal starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Jack Black
Shallow Hal starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Jack Black. Image via terraespiritual.locaweb.com.br

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


Dumb and Dumber starring Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels

There's Something About Mary starring Cameron Diaz, Matt Dillon and Ben Stiller
There's Something About Mary starring Cameron Diaz, Matt Dillon and Ben Stiller. Rated 7.2 on IMDB. Directed and co-writen by Bobby and Peter Farrelly. Image via klausen1976.files.wordpress.com
Me,myself and Irene starring Jim Carrey and Renee Zellweger
Me,myself and Irene starring Jim Carrey and Renee Zellweger. Directed and co-written by Peter and Bobby Farrelly. Image via images.amazon.com
The Heartbreak Kid starring Ben Stiller, Malin Akerman and Michelle Monaghan
The Heartbreak Kid starring Ben Stiller, Malin Akerman and Michelle Monaghan. As usual, directed and co-written by the Farrelly Brothers. Image via bloggang.com/

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…

All posts on Gwyneth Paltrow

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3 Happy Celebrity Couples: Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz, Gwyneth Paltrow, Chris Martin, Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher

Shallow Hal on Amazon.com

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Filed Under: Movies and Actors Tagged With: Bobby Farrelly, comedy, dating, drama, farrelly brothers, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jack Black, Jason Alexander, movies, Peter Farrelly, relationships, romance, Shallow Hal, Tony Robbins

The Heartbreak Kid starring Ben Stiller, Malin Akerman and Michelle Monaghan

Posted on July 6, 2010 Written by ripitup

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The Heartbreak Kid starring Ben Stiller, Malin Akerman and Michelle Monaghan
The Heartbreak Kid starring Ben Stiller, Malin Akerman and Michelle Monaghan. Image via: http://www.collider.com/

Eddie (Ben Stiller) has reached 40 and single. Unfortunately for him, his happily married (=wife-obliging) best friend Mac (Rob Corddry) thinks he will end of alone and miserable and his father Doc (Jerry Stiller, the real life father of actor Ben Stiller) is not happy with how many women his son is sleeping with. In  between all the trouble they are getting him and his ex-fiancé getting married, he happens to meet a gorgeous blonde by chance. Her name is Lila (Malin Akerman), she is sweet, down-to-earth and seems like the perfect woman.

Eddie ends up marrying Lila. It is not like he could do any better. But during their honeymoon, he starts noticing that Lila is irritable, unstable and well, is a little nuts. It is during the honeymoon that Eddie meets a beautiful brunette by the name of Miranda (Michelle Monaghan). She is there for a family vacation. She is fun, easy-going and totally sane. And she seems like she is into him. Of course she doesn’t know that Eddie is married. So Eddie’s “romantic” holiday is spent between handling Lila and trying to spend as much time as he can with Miranda. But Miranda is bound to find out any time…

The Heartbreak Kid starring Ben Stiller, Malin Akerman and Michelle Monaghan
Image via http://img5.allocine.fr/

The Heartbreak Kid is not your typical romantic comedy. First of all, it is not exactly romantic enough to be even called a romcom. It is a comedy with some romantic moments attached and the only reason romantic scenes are only there to build the ground for more comedy. But you can’t exactly label this one as a sole comedy because well…While it is a funny movie, it is not hilarious all the time. It is fun  and certainly easy to watch but you may not exactly pull stomach muscles from laughing. It is rightfully R-rated. After all, Lila is playing a character who knows a lot of weird sex positions but she doesn’t know what missionary means… And then there is Edie’s old dad who talks about p**** a lot. Yep, he uses the exact word.

The Heartbreak Kid starring Ben Stiller, Michelle Monaghan and Malin Akerman
Image via http://kindredsoul.files.wordpress.com

This movie is directed by the Farrelly Brothers; Bobby and Peter Farrelly and co-written by them. The script is based on the 1972’s The Heartbreak Kid.

You are probably familiar with at least some of the work of the brothers: “There is something about Mary”,”Me, myself and Irene”, Stuck on You, Fever Pitch, Shallow Hal…

The Heartbreak Kid is an R-rated, sort of romcom with the sensibility of Me, myself and Irene. But I have to say, I loved the ending.

5.9 on IMDB. A 6 from me.

Buy this film on Amazon.

Posts featuring Malin Akerman

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The Watchmen

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Filed Under: Movies and Actors Tagged With: Ben Stiller, Bob Farrelly, comedy, Jerry Stiller, Malin Akerman, Michelle Monaghan, movies, Peter Farrelly, Rob Corddry, romance, The Farrelly Brothers, The Heartbreak Kid

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