Thursday, March 8, 2012

A One-Line Concept Film Leaves Me Murky On The Message: Shallow Hal


The Good: Decent concept, Amusing moments, Average DVD bonus features
The Bad: Not terribly funny, Predictable
The Basics: A fairly average film based on a decent concept, Shallow Hal does what it promises to do with surprisingly few laughs, but decent enough presentation to warrant a viewing.


When we fall in love, we open up to new experiences. As a lover of movies, music, books and the like, that means that for me, I am opening up to new performers as I fall in love more. In practical terms, this means that I am giving Jack Black and his movies a second look. I have largely been in the Family Guy camp that Black's movies tend to be like their parody "The Unconventional Butler" and I have not lost much sleep on the idea that I had not seen many films starring Jack Black. In fact, the only movie that comes instantly to mind that I have seen of Black's is Cradle Will Rock (reviewed here!) in which he has only a bit part.

So when my love recently sat through Magnolia (reviewed here!) with me, I felt I should show interest in some of the films on her shelf. Truth be told, Shallow Hal was one I had heard mixed reviews on and still had some desire to see. Yes, falling in love is a good reason to see movies you might otherwise be on the fence about.

Hal Larson is a middle management type who is passed over for promotions and advancement at his job, so he spends his nights cruising the bars trying to pick up drunk, hot chicks. He and his lone friend, Mauricio, keep a running tally of the play they are getting and compare notes, seeking only vacuous relationships based on sex. It is doubtful either one has ever had a meaningful relationship, much less actually scored with the women who tend to be indifferent at best to them.

After floundering in this manner for a while, Hal meets success guru Tony Robbins, who gets trapped with Hal in an elevator. After hours of therapy with Robbins, Hal is brainwashed by Robbins to see inner beauty as stereotypical physical beauty. The result is that Hal begins to see beautiful women everywhere, who Mauricio is shocked about due to them not being the physical specimens Hal claims them to be. This culminates in an awkward meeting between Hal and Rosemary, who is leery of Hal's advances, but soon comes to see he is being genuine. As Hal and Rosemary - who happens to be the boss's daughter - get closer, Hal falls in love with her more, much to Mauricio's annoyance, as all he sees is a three hundred pound woman.

Shallow Hal is a remarkably simple, average comedy that is plagued by one severe conceptual problem. I can live with the way the film hides all the fat jokes by having the stick-figure Gwyneth Paltrow be the one on camera drinking up the giant milkshake and making the giant splash in the pool. Shallow Hal is borderline on how it views fat people, opting for the noble theme of inner beauty is more important than outer beauty . . . sort of.

Inner beauty is seen by Hal as Hollywood external beauty. That is the one-line concept of the film. Once you get that the reason Hal wants to score with Rosemary is because she looks like Gwyneth Paltrow and that she looks like Gwyneth Paltrow because she is altruistic, kind and funny, you pretty much get the entire film. But where Shallow Hal falls down is that the reversal is not true.

Hal sees women of charisma and spunk as Hollywood beautiful. What fails to hold in the film is that Hal does not see vacuous, trendy lousy personalitied people as ugly. So, in other words, only the people who are fat and nasty would be seen by Hal as ugly. Everyone else is Hollywood beautiful in his eyes. This is what I don't buy about Shallow Hal. In order for the concept to work, he should have seen someone who is Hollywood beautiful, but mean, nasty and vain as a leper. He does not. Instead, men and women alike who are endowed with a good personality are seen by Hal as Hollywood beautiful. In effect, all Tony Robbins' spell does is level the playing field for non-Hollywood beautiful types.

That gargantuan hole in the concept left me feeling underwhelmed by the movie. But what brought Shallow Hal back up to average territory in my schema was the other psychological aspects surrounding the people Hal comes to see as beautiful. So, for example, what might seem like a cheap fat joke - when Hal meets Rosemary's mother and comments on how Rosemary must get her figure from her mother - actually makes a decent sociological statement. Why do we only see the benefit of heredity when the result is stick-figure thin? After all, there is no less a genetic connection between two portly people and if one likes a robust, curvy woman, why must that be taken as an insult?

But even better in the film is how Hal's treatment of Rosemary opens others up to the rotten way they have treated her in the past. Yes, glorifying your non-stereotypically beautiful lover and treating her like she is every bit as beautiful as the women on magazine covers can change the world. It illustrates to parents - like Rosemary's mother and father - just how unsupportive they have been to their daughter, who works hard and does some amazing things with her life and time (like volunteer work and charity work).

This - and Mauricio's character arc - are the redeeming messages of the film. Shallow Hal attempts to reteach what we ought to have mastered in grade school, that being nice to people is a good thing and that personality is more important than looks. Mauricio's character arc in the movie is obvious - he realizes just how shallow he has been and how he truly screwed Hal over by taking the whammy off Hal after he has fallen in love with Rosemary - but it is still a worthwhile one. I suspect I would have been vastly more disappointed had Mauricio not learned any lesson at all.

That said, Shallow Hal is much more of a concept film than a character one. Rosemary is as much a stereotype as Hal, with her large but jolly nature and altruistic ways. Hal seems to run into the nicest fat women in the city, but none of the mean, angry bitter ones (who should still look terrible to him). Rosemary is the stereotype of the jolly fat (wo)man. Just as Mauricio and Hal are the loser cruisers who are clearly just out for sex, Rosemary is more a type than an actual and actualized character.

That said, the role of Rosemary is a decent one for Gwyneth Paltrow. She is allowed to play with her shy, understated side and that works well, especially compared to the more forceful and obviously strong women she has played in the past. Paltrow has a great physical sense when she plays meek or shy and the role is well-developed by her.

As for Jack Black and Jason Alexander, who play Hal and Mauricio, one wishes that they could endorse the roles as great acting on the part of either one of them. Black does a good job, not overemphasizing his usual manic on-screen nature. But Jason Alexander is presented here as more a bit of decent casting than great acting. There are far too many similarities between Mauricio and Alexander's famed character George Costanza to see Alexander as doing much more than reprising his best-known role in some crucial scenes. Alexander does open up the body language of Mauricio more than George ever did, so there is that, at least.

That said, Shallow Hal is a decent Sunday afternoon movie. When you're done running errands and want to sit and watch something and be entertained, this movie will fit the bill. It is not a great film of enduring quality that holds up over hundreds of viewings, but it is entertaining and it works well to make the point it sets out to make. And with that, I shall return to my smoking hot fiance, uncaring of whether it is her physical beauty or personality I am seeing!

For other works featuring Gwyneth Paltrow, please visit my reviews of:
Contagion
Glee: The 3-D Concert Movie
Glee - Season Two, Volume 1
Iron Man 2
Iron Man
The Royal Tenenbaums
Bounce
Shakespeare In Love

5/10

For other film reviews, please be sure to check out my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing of all the films I have reviewed!

© 2012, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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