Review of Shallow Hal
Year: 2001 Reviewer: Chris Docker
The makers of `There's Something About Mary' and `Me, Myself and Irene' come unstuck here in making a comedy that isn't really a comedy, and without the top acting talent and cutting script that made their earlier efforts such a success. Shallow Hal is hypnotized to see only the inner beauty in people. He subsequently proceeds to date exceedingly fat, ugly women whilst boasting to his mates about the gorgeous chicks he's pulling. Of course, he genuinely falls in love with one of said women and loves her even when he's de-hypnotised. If this wasn't cheesy enough, there's kids with in the hospital burns unit that everyone else shuns away from and only Hal can see the inner beauty. Gwyneth Paltrow, with a lot of prosthetic help, plays a woman of stunning beauty and also of dangerous proportions but, good an actress though she may be, funny she isn't. As a comedy, it's a one-gag movie; as a touching tale of seeing beyond the surface it lays the message on a little too thick.
Rating: 5/10
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