Shallow Hal (2001)

Starring: Gwyneth Paltrow, Jack Black, Jason Alexander
Director: Peter & Bobby Farrelly

Rating: PG-13

Studio: 20th Century Fox

Review Posted: 11.14.01

Spoilers: Minor

Rating: 1/4

By Craig Younkin. | Read Review #2

"Shallow Hal" is the painfully unfunny and mildly offensive new film from the Farrelly Brothers, two originally funny people who have gone down hill since their big success in 1999. Do I really need to say what that film was? The star of this film though is Jack Black, an energetic young comedian who has sadly picked awful roles this year, such as the one of Hal.

At age nine, Hal is told by his dying father that looks are all that matters when it comes to the female gender, and that he should only chase hot young tail. Hal takes dad's advice and runs with it all the way up to his adult years, where he is still a pathetic loser trying to score with women completely out of his league.

After just being denied a promotion at the office one day, Hal runs into motivational speaker Tony Robbins in an elevator. When the elevator breaks down, Hal passes the time by telling him his problem with women. Robbins agrees to help by hypnotizing Hal into seeing a woman's inner beauty, only when Hal leaves the elevator, he has no idea he has been hypnotized.

But he soon can't get over how many beautiful women want to date him, only the problem is, they aren't specifically beautiful to anyone else but him. The spell has enabled Hal to see the inner beauty in women, and one woman he grows particularly fond of is Rosemary (played by Gwyneth Paltrow in a fat suit), a 300 pound self-deprecate who he sees as a thin Gwyneth Paltrow.

Rosemary can't believe that there is actually a man taking interest in her, and neither can her father (Joe Viterelli), a man who is actually Hal's boss. He, and almost everybody else, believes that Hal is just trying to score a promotion by going out with his daughter, but of course that isn't true.

"Shallow Hal" is possibly the year's biggest mistake. This film wants to make a point about how there is inner beauty in all types of women, big to small, young to old, but it sadly does so by using these different types of women as the major source of sight gags, which is the only form of humor this scarce looking comedy has. 

Another wrong move is that it portrays the definition of beauty with the regular Hollywood supermodel. Would it really be that terrible to get an actress who was actually this size, instead of hiring a bean pole actress to play the size instead?

The romance between Black and Paltrow is really poorly constructed. We barely see Paltrow in the fat suit and when we do she looks so fake that our basic interpretation of her is that it's supposed to be funny. Only the thing is, it really isn't.

We also never know if Hal really loves Rosemary or if he is just enamored with her physical appearance. This is another major problem of casting Paltrow in the Rosemary role. There should be more scenes shared between the two that don't involve magic spells and other hooey like that, but as is, the formulaic romantic comedy ending just looks like it's throwing them together because it has too.

"Shallow Hal" is also an astonishingly sentimental movie, picking on everything from vulnerable fat people to child burn victims. This movie also has a continuing disabled character, but I'm still not even sure what his purpose in the film was in the first place.

I expected a lot better from the Farrelly's after "Something About Mary" (or "Me, Myself & Irene") than just a weak attempt to poke a little fun at fat people. "Shallow Hal" will definitely proceed "Outside Providence" as their worst film, and will undoubtedly make a few other worst lists at the end of the year as well.

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