Shallow Hal deals with weighty issue
by Michael Kraft, entertainment editor

    Shallow Hal is the latest film to come down the pike from the Farrelly Brothers.
    Peter and Bobby Farrelly are responsible for such films as Dumb and Dumber, Kingpin and There’s Something about Mary.

    Pushing the envelope of good taste and good humor has been, to quote Chico Esquela, “berra, berra good” for the Farrellys, so I expected a non-stop raunchfest in Shallow Hal. I mean, how do you top the hair-gel bit and Jeff Daniels getting the runs?

    Considering the level of humor and maturity in their previous works, I was pleasantly surprised. Call it a “message comedy.”

    The message is to not look at people just on the outside but try to see their inner beauty.

    This message is unfortunately lost on Hal (Jack Black), the exceedingly shallow protagonist of this film.

    Hal is following the (poor) advice of his dying father and only going after the most gorgeous knockout.

    He is generally shunned, but, doggone it, he doesn’t stop trying. He has a run-in with self-help guru Tony Robbins (playing himself), who teaches him to see only a woman’s inner beauty.

    Soon after, he runs into Rosemary (Gwyneth Paltrow), who appears to be extraordinarily beautiful to Hal.

    The audience knows that she is not as Hal views her, so some of the lines he tries on her are funny, but unusually cruel.

    She is attracted to him, however, and they go on a few dates.

    Hal discovers she is not only beautiful, but funny, charming, witty and extremely kind Everything seems to be going well until Hal’s neurotic friend Mauricio (Jason Alexander) tries to get Hal back to his former appearance-driven self.

    In desperation, Mauricio tracks down Robbins after a seminar and asks him how to reverse the “spell” and return his friend.

    Robbins refuses. But after pleading and a little subterfuge, Robbins tells Mauricio the “key” to unlock Hal from the hypnosis.

    Mauricio brings Hal out at the worst possible time, and things go downhill from there.

    This movie is not a typical Farrelly Brothers picture.

    The message is one of acceptance and seeing people for who they are beyond the physical attributes.

    The acting was quite good all around.

    Jack Black was absolutely hilarious as Hal.

    Black is very well known in the underground music scene as half of Tenacious D and for his character roles in other pictures, notably High Fidelity with John Cusack.

    Paltrow is believable as Rosemary. As Hal is commenting on her beauty or her slender figure, her disbelief at the flattery is quite well acted.

    Jason Alexander plays another weird neurotic guy with bizarre hang-ups about women and relationships.

    Alexander has kind of typecast himself with George Costanza and while he doesn’t play Mauricio as George, George pops up occasionally in the film. It may be a while before he can get that albatross off his neck.

   Being a departure from the Farrellys previous works doesn’t hurt Shallow Hal at all. In fact, it may help the film.