She takes the cake! (Shallow Hal (DVD))

Member Name: buttonman

Product:	Shallow Hal (DVD)
Date:	17/02/02 (139 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some funny scenes

Disadvantages: Preachy

As my regular readers will testify I'm a fan of the Farrelly brothers and their patented brand of gross out humour. I liked Roy having it off with the wrinkled landlady in 'Kingpin' and who didn't laugh at the hair gel scene in 'There's something about Mary'?. You can therefore imagine my delight when I read their next film was to be about fatties. Don't get me wrong I'm 15s 7lbs myself but a bit of un-PC fatty bashing may be just the thing to keep me away from the Big Macs.

I was however somewhat disappointed by this offering it was thin on laughs but enormous on preachiness and trite platitudes. But first tell us the plot, Porky.

PLOT
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Jack Black in his first major lead plays the titular Hal who not unreasonably likes pretty girls. Despite packing some pork he makes a beeline for all the super models that inhabit his local disco - clearly this film was not shot in Glasgow's Club 30!. Despite getting the brush off we soon learn that he and his odious chum Mauricio (Jason Alexander - George out of Seinfeld) regularly pull hot dames and despite their own shortcomings ditch them for reasons such as "her second toe was bigger than her big toe"!

In a familiar flashback sequence we see Hal as a boy visiting his father on his deathbed. Doped up Dad tells Hal never to settle and aim for the best in totty. This character forming moment led to Hal's shortcomings and only a movie McGuffin could ever change him. Cue Hal getting stuck in a lift with mind guru Tony Robbins who hypnotises Hal into seeing inner beauty.

With this thin plot in place Hal soon starts dancing with the more facially challenged ladies. We see Both Hal's and other peoples' perspectives with the ladies looking nice and less nice in the same scene. Soon Hal meets Rosemary a 300-pound behemoth whom he sees as the skinny Gwyneth Paltrow. Slight smirks ensue as she collapses chairs and empties p
ools with her massive frame. Hal's weasely friend however is less impressed by the now Deep Hal and manages to get the hypnosis cancelled meaning Hal now sees Rosemary as she is. Will he stay with her now he's himself again? What do you think!

THOUGHTS
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I was slightly uncomfortable with this films suggestion that fat and ugly people are all nice whereas the lookers are not. Preconceptions go both ways and when Hal sees his friend's gold digging girl friend as an old hag it seemed somewhat generalizing. I'm sure the nice looking nice people stayed nice looking but this wasn't explored. The fact Rosemary's dad was also Jacks boss meant it was uncomfortable to watch as he seemed to be dating her only to advance his career which of course we knew he wasn't as he's nice really. The whole concept of inner beauty was dealt with in a slap dash fashion and the message of treat people nicely regardless of appearance was schmaltzy and preachy.

To be fair there were some funny bits such as Hal arguing with two guys who said "I hope there is some food left" as Hal and Rosemary left a restaurant. Being somewhat tubby Hal thinks they are talking about him and says "I don't care she's my girlfriend and she takes the cake"! There are also a lot of sight gags and a funny scene where Gwyneth takes off her micro briefs and throws them to Hal who catches Rosemary's cargo pants.

As the film nears its predictable climax we meet several characters we saw earlier in the film and see them as they really are. These include a ward full of child burn victims and this would've been uncomfortable if the make up hadn't looked like lasange!

Towards the tail end of the film we learn something about Hal's friend which explains his behaviour towards women and leads to the film's main gross out scene. I won't spoil it but everyone at my screening went eeurrgghh! <
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CAST

I quite like the leads in the film. Jack Black is good as Hal although his frantic delivery won't be to every ones taste. His portly frame also means he's unlikely to be the next James Bond, but lets not judge on appearance, man! Gwyneth Paltrow is OK as Rosemary although as a vision of an ideal woman she's clearly too skinny. The papers made a lot of her fat suit but in truth you hardly see her in it until the end. Jason Alexander again is OK but basically plays the part as Seinfeld's George, always shouting and getting upset and I found this somewhat distracting.

The directors also use several disabled actors and far from exploiting them they give them a platform to show they can act and entertain with the best of them. Having listened to several of the directors' DVD commentaries I know they do have several disabled friends who are regulars in their films and their appearances here, although more prominent, are certainly not charity nor exploitation.

OVERALL
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A decent feel good film that will make we tubbies feel slightly better about ourselves if we believe the message of 'love one another regardless of appearance'. Sadly my cynicism won't allow such sentimental pap so it's off to McDonalds! One last thing they only called her Rosemary so they could play 'Love grows where my Rosemary goes' at the end. And that's no bad thing!

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