Film Review: Shallow Hal (2001)
Line between being entertainingly irreverent and cringe worthy is very thin. Farrelly Brothers have danced on it while making their films, sometimes crossing to the other side, like with their 2001 comedy Shallow Hal.
Jack Black in his first starring role plays Hal Larson, man who doesn’t have many reasons to complain about his professional life, but whose personal life leaves much to be desired. Hal tends to pursue beautiful women that are, due to his relatively ordinary looks, likely to be be beyond his reach. Things change when, due to an accident, he remains stuck in elevator with famous self-help guru Tony Robbins (playing himself in cameo) who, after long conversations, becomes convinced that Hal might find happiness in romantic relationships if he starts seeing “inner beauty” in women. He decides to hypnotise him and, as a result, Hal meets Rosemary “Rosie” Shanahan (played by Gwyneth Paltrow), immensely beautiful woman with whom he would instantly fall in love and try to seduce. Everyone, including Rosie, is very surprised with Hal’s displays of love and affection, and there is good reason for that. Rosie is actually morbidly obese, which creates all kind of misunderstandings and even practical problems for Hal, who in his mind still sees her as ideal of beauty. Two of them nevertheless start dating, but it is only a matter of time before the circumstances and Hal’s friend Mauricio (played by Jason Alexander), envious of Hal’s happiness, conspire to shatter the illusion with heartbreaking results.
Peter and Bobby Farrelly have made their name with series of successful comedies that often featured dealt with various bodily fluids and challenged the established notions of good taste. At first glance, it looked like Shallow Hal might belong to the same category, but the film actually represented Farellys’ attempt to become kinder, gentler and more family-friendly. Inspired by their acquaintance and co-writer Sean Moynihan, who was blind, they made the story that tried to promote tolerance, criticise typically Hollywood obsession with looks and embrace concept of “inner beauty”. Farrellys probably had good intentions but the way their premise was put in practise in many ways compromised the film. The authors apparently couldn’t have resisted temptation to put some outrageous content which involves grotesquely burned children or genetic malformation. Almost all humour in the film is based on the difference between “inner” beauty that Hal sees, with Paltrow at the height of popularity playing star-like, and “outer” ugliness that Hal doesn’t see, but it forces Paltrow to play that character wearing grotesque makeup and extremely heavy fat suit. Jack Black tries a little bit too hard in his role, unlike Paltrow who does a solid job in a role that was actually quite unpleasant and physically demanded for Oscar-awarded actress. But the main issue the film has is conceptual – it, despite all noble declarations of its authors, makes fun of obese people. From today’s perspective Shallow Hal look “politically incorrect” and ends up mocking what appears to be majority of US population, and Zoomers and future generations, educated by advertisers promoting “Plus Size” models and Lizzo as new ideal of female beauty, might have serious problems understanding what was actually funny in this film.
RATING: 4/10 (+)
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