Shallow Hal

Shallow Hal is a very entertaining comedy because it deals very beautifully with the fact that most of us are superficial when it comes to judging people. We want to meet and date people who are only superficially beautiful and anyone not meeting our beauty standards is automatically rejected. What the movie tries to tell us is that we should not go by the external facade of the other person but rather give everyone a fair chance or we might miss out on some fabulous people in our lives who are not so beautiful.

The crux of the story is that Hal (Jack Black ..extremely funny)and his best friend are guys who only like to date thin, good looking women. Intelligent women who are not so presentable are ignored totally by these guys. It?s a different issue that these two guys themselves are not drop dead handsome or something. They meet a new age speaker who casts a spell on Black and makes him see the inner beauty within every person. A string of incidents happen in which Jack even meets the love of his life. But the only problem is that although she appears gorgeous to him; in reality she is really fat. How Jack learns the truth and overcomes his superficiality forms the rest of the story.

This flick has wonderful acting by Black and is ably supported by the very pretty Gwyneth Paltrow and Seinfeld actor (don?t know his name..sorry). There are so many beautiful moments in the flick, which give you the message in a very humorous manner. I hate movies that are you know the ’’preachy-preachy’’ types but what I liked was that this one makes us understand the message in a very subtle manner.

There are so many hilarious scenes like when the hero’s girlfriend takes a jump in the pool and the disastrous after effects of ’’the jump’’; when they share a drink romantically and the super fast way in which she finishes it all alone and many more. Also there are very touching scenes especially when he visits the children?s ward of the hospital the second time and when Black sees his girlfriend the way she really is(and not thin as he had always imagined and seen her). Note his first words on seeing her.
The film has lots of humor thanks largely to the fact that it is a Farrelly brothers creation. Their movies have so much of laff-a-minute humor that it is really enjoyed by people of all age groups.

Though their movies tend to have somewhat loud humor; in this one they are restrained. Mind you this is not a sappy romantic but a movie that belongs to the ’’funny romantic’’ genre so I daresay people should like it. Personally speaking the way in which Black acts is really funny with his deadpan style of dialogue delivery. His friend also excels in supporting him.

’’Shallow Hal wants a gal’’ is really the whole catchphrase of the movie so ?You my pal should watch Hal? bad rhyming but watch it if you can anyway.