Reel Critics

Angela Lee, Craig Von Freymann

He said:

“Shallow Hal” is an entertaining if not meaningful movie. The movie

wants to be meaningful but its message is lost in its own craziness. The

movie opens with our antihero, Hal (Jack Black) receiving life advice

from his dying father.

The deathbed advice is simple, don’t settle for less than the best. In

this case, the best is “young, hot, tail.” These words resonate greatly

with young Hal who undertakes as his lives mission the pursuit of young,

hot, tail. “Shallow Hal” is the best when Hal is pursing his life’s

mission. With best friend, Jason Alexander, Hal has a great time chasing

girls and never settling for less than perfection.

Alexander steals the movie as the best friend who doesn’t want Hal to

change. But this being a movie, Hal has to change even if only through

brainwashing by self-help guru Tony Robbins. Robbins allows Hal to see a

person’s inner beauty and not the superficial outer beauty. Hal soon

spots Rosemarie (Gwyneth Paltrow) with his new “laser beer goggles” and

falls for her hard. Rosie is a Peace Corp volunteer who also helps out in

the local hospital. She is perfect except for the extra 300 pounds she

carries around.

This movie has some big laughs and a few lines that fall flat. I liked

“Shallow Hal” but the great girl trapped in a fat girl’s body premise

grows a little thin by the end of the movie. Another problem is the fat

suit Paltrow wears. She doesn’t look like a real fat person but a more

like a female Jabba-the-Hut. Why not cast a real overweight actress and

not take the easy way out.

She said:

“Shallow Hal” was a riot. Could it be because I wasn’t expecting much

out of it? The movie trailer showing an obese woman jumping off of a

diving board into a swimming pool didn’t exactly stir up any warm and

fuzzy feelings in me. Nor did the premise -- superficial, shallow man

looking for the ultimate babe suddenly turns deep and falls for the inner

beauty of a fat woman he’d never normally look at once, let alone twice?

But this movie turned out to be hilarious!

Hal, played by Jack Black, is your basic schmuck who thinks he is

deserving of women such as Heidi Klum (without her accent because it’d

get on his nerves after awhile) or Rebecca Romijin-Stamos (if she weren’t

so skinny) even though he is not supermodel material himself.

There were some funny moments such as when Hal’s best friend, played

by Jason Alexander, is shocked by Hal’s choice in women of late. He

hollers to Hal, “Vicky? Who’s Vicky? Vicky was a woman? I thought she was

a man! I spent the whole night calling her Vick!”

And then Rosemarie, played by Gwyneth Paltrow, enters Hal’s life.

Rosemarie is the obese woman you see in the movie trailers jumping into

the swimming pool. She is also the woman Hal falls in love with. He

thinks it’s incredible that such a beauty as Rosemarie would want to date

him. So Hal does his best to win her over -- movies, dinner, flattery --

all because he thinks Rosemarie is not only beautiful but possesses a

brain and a personality. Imagine that!

Black did a great job playing Hal. He had the looks and the demeanor

of a past shallow jerk on his way to reformation down to perfection.

Never mind that the story line is completely predictable and never mind

that Alexander comes close to overshadowing Hal. Those two had fantastic

chemistry throughout the movie. Paltrow, however, dressed up as the obese

Rosemarie was a hard sell for me. She looked like a hippopotamus that had

stayed in the sun too long. Go see Shallow Hal. You’ll be in for some

laughs.

* CRAIG VON FREYMANN, 33, Is an avid surfer who enjoys the quality of

life and numerous leisure activities the city offers. ANGELA LEE, 31, is

an avid moviegoer. Both recently received their master’s degrees at UC

Irvine.