Year: 2001
Director(s): Farrely Brothers
Country: US
Language: English
"Hot young tail," his father says while on his deathbed. "That's what it's all about." Hal (Jack Black) promises his father that he will only date beautiful women. The Farrelly Brothers are the raunchiest Directors of the 90's, often pissing people off with their lowbrow and immature humor. They are not afraid to seek jokes where few would dare, like a children's burn ward. Despite this, they can occasionally made decent films. . Shallow Hal might be one of their better outings.
Hal is a very shallow individual who can only see a person's outer beauty. Then one day he is hypnotized by a self help guru and can only see the inner beauty of women. Thus he falls in love with Rosemary (Gwyneth Paltrow) , a 300 pound woman.
Some have criticized the Farelly Brothers for mocking the obese. While I can somewhat see where they're coming from, I'd argue that they are making us empathize with Rosemary, rather than laugh at her. While we are clearly seeing Rosemary's exterior beauty, it is necessary because visually it is the only way to see Hal's point of view. Due to this, we come to loathe Hal's buddy Jason Alexander for being so shallow that he breaks up with women because their big toe's are too big.
For Jack Black's first starring role, he has done a pretty good job at being a delusional bachelor desperately fallen in love with a girl who seems to not have had much luck in that department. I'm not a fan of how the directors treat Walt (Rene Kirby), a man who has spina bifida, as his disability is a source of many low-brow jokes. However, he is eventually treated with dignity. Shallow Hal is a mixed bag, but we can be certain that it is full of nuts.
In conclusion, Shallow Hal is very polarizing. It has as many people laughing as they do cringe. I'm on the fence about this, because while I do see their intention (don't judge a book by its cover) they often go too far and sometimes it seems like they're achieving the opposite of their goal. 2.5/5
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