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Since making fun of fat people is still the only socially accepted form of bigotry left in America, it doesn’t surprise me that people were flocking to see Shallow Hal starring Jack Black (Saving Silverman) as Hal Larsen. But before those politically correct fanatics needing a soapbox to stand on get started, Shallow Hal is only slightly offensive to fat people and in the end it still turns out to be a romantic comedy. Buy hey Shallow Hal was written and directed by the Farrelly brothers (Me, Myself & Irene), so what do you expect. I do have an axe to grind about the wardrobe. Since the character Rosemary Shanahan (Gwyneth Paltrow, Bounce, Shakespeare in Love and Sliding Doors) comes from an affluent upper class white family and she is not a high school drop out living in a trailer there is no way in hell she would be wearing the wardrobe that the fat double was forced to wear, when Hal saw her as the petite and beautiful Rosemary. I don’t even think they make bikinis in that size, who would wear one with all that flab hanging over the bottom and under the top. In fact if they were going to put her in short skirts, short shorts and midriff bearing tops and sleeveless dresses and shirts then they should have stayed consistent. When Hal saw Rosemary as the 300 lb woman she was wearing long skirts, sweater sets and dull tops to cover her weight. If the heart is only supposed to see and feel what it wants then the wardrobe should not have changed. Okay now that I have had my little outburst I can get on with Shallow Hal. The
film begins with a young Hal visiting his dying minister father. Hal’s mother
Molly Shannon (Serendipity) had all of 30 seconds in this film, and does not go in the room.
Hal’s dad tells his son, do not marry for love or settle for an average woman,
he did that and Betty made his life hell. The woman he married is named Mary.
Also make sure her boobs are huge. This is where the young pudgy Hal set the bar
for women he will date, they would all be shallow and way out of his league. Cut
to the overweight Hal and his buddy Mauricio Wilson (Jason Alexander) cruising
the bars trying to hook up with beautiful thin women. None will throw them a
bone. Truth is Mauricio had been dating a beauty but the toe next to her big toe
was a little longer than her big toe so she was dubbed a freak by Mauricio. This
guy was truly a selfish, moronic, woman hating, pig. In fact in the end he still
did not have any redeeming qualities. Hal was trying to hook up with his
neighbor Jill (Susan Ward) but she let him down easy with there just isn’t any
physical attraction for her. Moving on, Hal gets stuck in an elevator with Tony
Robbins (Anthony Robbins) and Tony is thinking Hal is really a nice guy that
needs a little guidance, so he gives him a gift. From now on Hal will only see
the good in people and not their physical self. So if they have a good heart,
they are beautiful. It appears that this works the opposite too, but only for
one person in the film. Hal starts meeting all these beautiful, and nice women
and he is in heaven. Then he spots Rosemary and pursues her. He is crass and
insulting and when she appears offended he apologizes because he really likes
her. Hal’s life is going perfect until his selfish little shit of a friend
Mauricio screws it up for him. The
stereotypical jokes about tent size panties, splashes as big as a tidal wave and
the breaking of chairs are all part of this film. We even learn a new derogatory
term of cankles coined by the obnoxious Alexander. This is when a woman does not
have ankles any longer, they just merge into the calves. Nice guy that
Alexander. This film was actually funny, but when has a Bobby Farrelly and Peter
Farrelly picture ever been boring? Their movies maybe silly and stupid, but they
are not boring when it comes to the Farrelly brothers. Paltrow does a nice job
as portraying a fat woman even though she was only in a few scenes with the fat
suit. A fat body double filled in for her when Hal was seeing her as a thin
person, but the world saw her as Rosemary. Outside of being a little insecure
about her appearance and not so willing to trust, she always remembered to
waddle as if she did weigh a ton. Well because the picture was funny and Jason
Alexander sorta got what was coming to him I rate Shallow Hal an eight on the
About-Movies.com scale.
Last updated: Saturday, October 28, 2006 05:37:39 PM Click Here to get back into frames.
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