SHALLOW HAL: WHY I HATE THAT MOVIE

[FMJeff]

This message sent to Roger Ebert in response to his critique of Shallow Hal.

Dear Mr. Ebert,
I am confused as to why you decided to give Shallow Hal a three star rating. I didn't find the film remotely touching or moving. On the contrary, I found it rather insulting and extremely manipulative.

First and foremost, Hal is not shallow. He is generous, kind and extremely personable. You want a shallow character? How about Keanu Reeves in Sweet November? Now there is a shallow human being.

So why is Hal considered shallow for enjoying the company of beautiful women? I condemn the feminist community for turning the natural male urge to prefer beautiful, healthy women into a detestable character flaw. There is nothing with Hal's choice in women, as long as it makes him happy. I admire Hal for setting his sights high and pursing that goal with relentless bravado. He should be applauded for his self-confidence, but the Farrelley Brothers want us to consider this behavior shallow. I think he is brave. I think it takes a tremendous amount of courage to approach a beautiful women when the world says, "She is out of your league, buddy!" That's where the movie fails me. Hal is not a flawed guy, he is just a guy. There is nothing wrong with a man who enjoys surrounding himself with beautiful women. Bottom line, fat women are visually unappealing because fat represents lethargy and personal contempt. It says something about the film that the only way Hal could see past the fat was a magic spell.

Secondly, beauty is not a character flaw either. The Farrelly Brothers reduce the women in the film to caricatures, where the nerds are gorgeous and the beautiful are hideous old women. When did we forget that women are just people? There are good people and bad people in the world, some fat, some skinny, some ugly, some beautiful. This is why I consider the movie so manipulative. The quality of an individual is not so black and white.

With that in mind, I refuse to accept the conclusion of the film. I am not opposed to the Hollywood ending in a romantic comedy, except when it doesn't make sense. From Hal's perspective, the dynamic of his personality had not changed. He was still dating a beautiful woman. Rosemary was a person of substance but that should NOT make a difference. The world does not OWE Rosemary a Shallow Hal because she is fat. I just cannot see Hal accepting a fat Rosemary. This is evident in a crucial scene in a restaurant where Hal simply walked past Rosemary, unaware of who she was. I remember hearing someone else in the theater call Hal a particularly insulting name, but I couldn't understand why. It was an HONEST reaction. I would love to test that individual's morality in a similiar situation.

Then I realized the Farrelly Brothers WANT us to feel pity for Rosemary. They want us to feel sorry for the fat girl, and angry at the "shallow" guy, and have them co-exist blissfully in a world without vanity, superficiality, physical attraction and raw sexuality. I don't buy it, and I can't understand, Mr. Ebert, how you did either.

Jeff Shain
WebMaster
http://www.foundrymusic.com

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[IkeaBoy]

i haven't seen it yet, i'm debating seeing it and maybe Ebert liked it because a) he's a fan of the Farrelly Brother movies (even the shitty ones) and b) he's fat and wants to be accepted.

I think the FArrellys have gone downhill since Kingpin. Me, Myself and Irene was just awful

-----
Carrot Man to Big Apple: I Miss my baby carrot.
Pro-War NYU Student. We're not all peace fags.

[FMJeff]

I couldn't agree with you more, Ikeaboy. "There's Something About Mary" was the biggest fluke. It had the same formula as every other Farrelly Brothers movie...romantic comedy with a lot of gross-out humor and weird people. The success of that movie was pure luck. It was the right combination of script and talent, a magic the Farrelly Brothers have failed to reproduce in dull films like "Outside Providence" and "Me Myself & Irene" and "Say It Isn't So". (Say It Isn't So, by the way, is THE WORST Farrelly Brothers film of all time. Talk about a joke that NEVER worked.) I mean think about th success of the earlier Farrellly Brothers films:

1) Kingpin: One of thier first...nobody was exposed to that kind of wacky, gross-out humor.

2) Dumb and Dumber: Jim Carrey. 'Nuff said. He made Man on the Moon bearable.

They were hot, but they made the classic Hollywood mistake of believing that gross-out humor and sideshow freaks are enough to support a movie.

Jeff Shain
WebMaster
http://www.foundrymusic.com

<img src="http://members.aol.com/sabanj666/ass.gif">

[girl germs]

here's a review for the film that i found interesting:

<font size="2"><b><a href="http://www.popmatters.com/film/reviews/s/shallow-hal2.html">Shallow Hal: a review by Cynthia Fuchs</a></b></font>


For all the glee produced by the hair gel joke in There's Something About Mary, I confess that sometimes I wish the whole thing never happened. Yes, it the movie gave Cameron Diaz a chance to show what a good sport she is, Ben Stiller a chance to get the girl, and Diaz and Matt Dillon a chance to get to know each other, even if it didn't last. But still, I regret the major fallout of the grand success of the film, which is that Bobby and Peter Farrelly have free rein to make it again and again and again (and, as we all know, they were making it before Mary, as Kingpin and Dumb and Dumber). Now, it's getting old.

That's not to say that the latest version of that film, Shallow Hal, has nothing redeeming about it. Any movie that gives Jack Black more to do than bounce off the Romantic Lead has something going for it. This guy is endlessly watchable. Whether he's blowing shit up for Bruce Willis in The Jackal, extolling the virtues of some obscure indie band to Johnny Cusack in High Fidelity, shooting heroin with Billy Crudup in Jesus' Son, or trundling through the wintry wilderness in the video for "Wonderboy," the new single by his two-man band, Tenacious D, Black is always a pleasure. Irony, weirdness, perversion -- he has it all. It was only a matter of time before Hollywood came a-knocking.

It's too bad that Shallow Hal doesn't make full use of Black's charismatic strangeness. Already it's being called the Farrellys' most "mainstream" offering to date, and, as annoying as their previous films have been, this is not necessarily good news. The brothers' inclination toward sappiness has, in the past, been held in check by their affection for gross-out humor. Shallow Hal is more sentimental and ostensibly more moralistic, in its purported pro-depth of feeling, anti-weight discrimination "message," but in the end, it all seems pretty superficial.

The basic formula is much the same as the Farrellys' other movies: The hero, strange as he may be, is set off by much odder and more offensive types. Hal is a goofy, unself-conscious loser of a party animal who never notices that the typically beautiful girls he dates (or tries to date) are idiotic or really mean. He believes this because, a pre-credits scene informs us, when he was 9 years old, his father offered these words of wisdom from his deathbed: "Don't be satisfied with routine poontang." Somehow, this instruction translates for Hal as: "Be shallow."

And so he is, with gusto: again and again, he pursues the babe with the skimpiest top and most phenomenal bone structure (though he admits it would be all right with him if she was "into culture and shit, too"). The first time you see adult Hal, he's on the hunt, gyrating like a wounded animal across the dance floor, pumping his neck, checking the chicks, uncomprehending when they dis him outright. And oh yes, his sideburns are way too long to be cool.

Hal is encouraged in his wolfish antics by his best friend, Mauricio (KFC pitchman Jason Alexander). Like most buddies in romantic comedies, even the gross-out ones, Mauricio is the designated sounding board and foil. And so he looks much worse than Hal, supplementing his terrible toupee with spray-on hair-in-a-can, and nurturing a George-Costanza-like obsession with his current girlfriend's second toe: It's longer than the big toe, and so, he resolves, he must break up with her.

By comparison, Hal's arrogance seems less odious. When we meet him, he's the dumpee rather than the dumper. Still, he's a jerk and must be de-jerked: according to Peter Farrelly, the movie is "about a guy who finds his soul and realizes what's important" (however these events might be related).

This soul-finding process is jumpstarted by none other than Tony Robbins, playing himself. When the two are stuck on an elevator together, Hal spews his tale of unlucky-in-love woe, and Robb

[FMJeff]

Good review. I agree with her. I just can't understand what Ebert saw in it.


Jeff Shain
WebMaster
http://www.foundrymusic.com

<img src="http://members.aol.com/sabanj666/ass.gif">

[opm * chick]

omg do I agree with you guys. I saw Shallow Hal last weekend and the ending left me totally shocked. Wich I shouldn't have been, it's obvious that that was gonna happen, but it just seemed to damn fake + unreal life-ish, it was like watching a really cheesy Disney movie.

1st off, The ending was fuct up. Just the night before he had gone on a date with that hot chick next door + asked her if she was wearing panties, and next day he's totally in love with and accepting this 300 pd girl. I just can't believe that a person can change their mind/beliefs so fast.

2nd, the movie just made me uncomfortable. I went with my best friend, and she totally trashed on Rosemary + laughed everytime that the poor thing broke chairs, so that was kinda weird. Then I realized that if we saw a person like that in the street she wouldn't have said those things or been rude to them at all, she's not like that and has a lot of respect for people. The movie just made fun of Rosemary's size, I guess that was the comedy part. So people laughed + then felt guilty for laughing. Sure they showed Rosemary as a nice caring person but they also put her in awkward situations to get a laugh out of people. Not very nice if you ask me.


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[The Blowhard]

Roger Ebert is nothing but a shill. Hollywood is cranking out garbage, and guys like Ebert and his PC reviews are mindless and inane. Ever notice how much he praises Spike Lee and his crap? Ebert has the credibility of a WWF Referee.

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