Review of Shallow Hal

It's a nice thought experiment. How would you perceive the people around you if all you could see was their inner beauty? How clearly would it demonstrate we mostly judge people based on their looks, clothing, make-up and style. Unfortunately Hollywood has managed to use this premise and ruin it in Shallow Hal. It may seem to be a filmed version of exactly that experiment, yet is isn't once you think about it. It's not our shallow lead character only sees Rosemary's inner beauty, he is mind-tricked into seeing inner beauty translated into a hot and sexy package. So after all he is not wooing Gwynneth Paltrow because of her great personality, he is still chasing his usual hare, today's ideal in looks, who also happens to be a nice person. Duhh! THINK! In fact, this movie boils down to shallow jokes about fat people, like huge knickers and such, where the source of many of the corny jokes lies in the fact the audience know how fat his dream girl really is, a fact which he is oblivious to. And of course, in the end, when he 'wakes up' he cannot but conclude Rosemary is still who he wants to be with. So, lucky nice and fat people, there is hope after all. All you have to hope for is a blind or hypnotised goof ball who cannot see you are fat, and then, maybe you'll get lucky if this period lasts long enough. Be honest, would you have liked Rosemary (kind of a boring goodie two shoes gal if you ask me) if you had to constantly watch let's say Roseanne Arnold (Barr) play that exact same character? It amazes me how many people apparently don't see the hypocrisy in this flick and don't even feel their intelligence is abused here. Besides this stupidity the film just isn't funny, it hardly made me laugh. In a nutshell: trash it. Waste of your time and intelligence. 2/10