Memorable, crazy movie

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

This is a surprisingly solid little romantic comedy with a simple message that manages to convey a sense of sweetness that lingers on even after the film hits the end credits.The film has a very basic premise: what if beauty REALLY isn't skin deep? With this central question comes several others: What if one's appearance is the direct reflection of one's 'inner beauty', and what if somebody suddenly begins to see the world and everyone in it in exactly this way? It sounds like the recipe for a dramatic, thought-provoking, award- winning tear-jerker, but having suffered from the viewing trauma wrought by last year' Collateral Beauty (marketed to be just such a thing), I'm not so sure. What we got is a Farrelly brothers project starring 1st-time-leading-man Jack Black, and so it should only be judged for what it is, a mainstream studio film and a PG13 romantic comedy.Such a subject matter could have easily fallen prey to a much more vulgar brand of humor , so it's refreshing to see the offensive fat jokes and cuss words kept under control here. The dialog is a little lacking in terms of memorable highlights but is otherwise fine. The film doesn't rely on cheap and abundant uses of slapstick action that has no consequence whatsoever to either the plot or the continuity within the scenes, or on visually striking wacky sidekicks to create humor (I'm thinking about you, Mr. Sandler). The 'ugly' versions of people are striking when they appear, yes, but they are not subjected to mocking or outright bullying like, well, Adam Sandler movies tended to do.Jack Black does a nice job portraying a 'shallow' guy who undergoes an internal transformation within the main storyline, bringing his character arc to a fulfilling end. However I have wondered how prime Jim Carrey would have fared as Hal, but prime Carrey probably would command a more dominant role as THE central and therefore only truly meaningful character, and that wouldn't do since it would mean stealing the show from Gwenyth Paltrow. Paltrow gives perhaps one of her sweetest performances as the utterly self-conscious, grossly obese Rosemary, the highlight of the film for me. She manages to bring out the innocence and fragility of a down to earth (very obese) young woman who seems to know and accept the fact that she's never going to be associated with ideas such as beauty, attractive, etc, even when she's in her own slim and frankly smoking hot version. I have watched Adam Sandler's 2002 film Mr. Deeds prior to writing this review, and Winona Ryder's character in that film, in both her 'Virgin Mary' act as well as the 'I'm changed' good woman version, lacks depth when compared with Paltrow's Rosemary.The direction overall seems spot on for the leads, and the selection of the soundtrack contribute to the overall feel of the film - lighthearted, a little silly, but sweet and even a little moving at times. Jack Black dances a lot, slim Gwenyth falls a lot, and fat Gwenyth hurts a lot, but it's the scene of the burn victim girl that stands out as a very touching human moment.However, one may argue that the film's male gaze is sometimes too obvious for the wrong reasons. Paltrow goes semi-nude on several occasions and I'm not sure how these are supposed to work with the dating couples in the audiences. The films settling with fat=ugly 99% of the time also needed some polishing. Jill's character feels like wasted potential. She's the only 'pretty' pretty woman in the story, she witnesses Hal's transformation first hand, but she's reduced to a cheap plot device at the end of Act 2 as the 'coincidence' that Rosemary stumbles into. Since its revealed that Jill's actually a nice person because she disliked the original, 'shallow' Hal, then surely we could do without the 'let's go to my bed tonight' seduction just to somehow contrast her with the saint like Rosemary. I feel that Jill' character should be better developed and more involved with the main storyline. I even think that a scene showing Jill and Rosemary meeting and talking about Hal could be great.I can see why the film has middling reviews from both critics and the general viewing public. Even after a slow start, the story drags on at times, the humor isn't that funny, and the dialog is average. I first watched this film back in 05, with Chinese subtitles, when I was a high schooler in Beijing. More than a decade later, as an exec in the film industry, I gave this another try and am pleasantly surprised to find that it still moved me at several places. It could be the universality of its subject matter. Not many American comedies can to more than merely entertain the international audience, but this one pulled it off. Hence my rating, a very solid 7.

I thought this was going to be mediocre based on the reviews,but I was wrong,this film has a good concept,and it executes that concept great.First,the good,when the jokes are there they don't feel forced,they feel natural,and they are funny.The pacing,the movie goes by nicely,not too slow,not too fast.The story is really good,and has a great message about inner beauty.The best part though,the characters,they feel real and are well acted.Now,the bad,I feel like the score dates the film a bit,and some jokes don't work.I feel like the movie was a bit too long,but the biggest flaw is that it is hypocritical,if the message is that inner beauty is more important than what's on the outside,why make fun of the disabled?All in all,the pros outweigh the cons,I thought this was a good movie.

It's the sort of mainstream comedy you immediately grasp the concept of just by looking at the poster and tagline. But here, the mere narrative in itself isn't the film. It's not as predictable as anticipated, and despite its total thick mainstream comedy atmosphere it actually isn't that unrealistic, despite the totally far-fetched elements, and the film makers made a real effort to make this stay together fairly plausibly.The criticism: same as for 'Stuck Together' - another Farelly early 2000's film - this comedy is a tad too long though not boring at any moment, focuses on the story a bit too much and thus forgets about the humor; this really could've used a lot more funny having Jack Black in it and the Farellys behind the set. But the morality sticks out in a healthy, pretty handsome sort of way here in the end, rather than it feeling totally facile or force-fed as in other such comedies.

Shallow Hal is a good movie with a well written storyline and a great comedic cast.The movie is written and directed by the Farrelly brothers,who have made some outstanding comedies,and while this may not be some of their best work,it is still filled with loads of hilarious scenes that you'd know while watching that they wrote it.Jack Black is certainly the best part of this movie,he was really interested and confident about his character and it certainly showed on screen,he also had great chemistry with both Gwyneth Paltrow and Jason Alexander.I thought that the jokes about Paltrows character being really fat but the audience seeing her as skinny gets really old after a while,but it just keeps gong until the end of the movie,which was certainly the weakest part of the movie,it's funny for a bit,but seeing a woman with a great figure manage to break a chair or eat a two person milkshake on her own just gets old pretty fast.Shallow Hal certainly has flaws,but it is funny and unique and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a quick and fun comedy.When looks obsessed Hal is hypnotised in to recognising only the inner beauty of women he soon falls for Rosemary,a very obese woman,but he only sees the beauty in her.Best Performance: Jack Black