SHALLOW HAL

2001

The Farrelly brothers make two kinds of film. The usual is the hilariously tasteless genre of movie, filled with potty-humor (e.g., "Dumb and Dumber," "There's Something About Mary," etc.) The second, is the funny but gentle, sweet and moving morality tale ("Outside Providence.") "Shallow Hal" falls into the second category. Peter and Bobby Farrelly have called it their "love letter to fat people."... and that it is! Hal (Jack Black) is your typical sexist, valueless, club-hopping "adolescent" who sees women as nothing but meat. One day he gets stuck in an elevator with self-help guru Tony Robbins, who hypnotizes him into seeing people as manifestations of their inner beauty or ugliness. Yikes! Enter 300-pound Rosemary (Gwyneth Paltrow) and the fable begins. Black and Paltrow play their usual on-screen personas with a bit more meat on their bones...no pun intended. Jason Alexander as Black's best friend is perfect. Well-written, well-directed and well-acted, the movie asks you to see it as a fairy tale or fable, otherwise you'll hear and see the gears churning noisily below the surface. Sort of like the plot of the movie itself. At times, the gears were too loud for me and it all seemed too contrived. But, listen as your "inner self" and you'll love it.

4 Stars

NJB