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Shallow Hal stars Jack Black in
what I consider to be his best film. Black
plays Hal, a below average-looking guy who
has unrealistically high standards for women. He wants to date supermodels—and nothing
but.
Stuck on an elevator with self-help guru Tony Robbins, Hal is
hypnotized to
see inner beauty instead of just physical beauty. Suddenly, the
undesirable become desirable to Hal, and he has plenty of hot babes to choose
from.
Jason Alexander plays Hal’s best friend, Mauricio, who has more than
his
share of dating hang-ups. And Gwyneth Paltrow is Hal’s new girlfriend, Rosemary.
Rosemary weighs 300 pounds to the rest of the world, but Hal only sees the beautiful
Gwyneth inside. The two of them have a lot of fun—in between the occasional chair
breaking incidents that happen whenever Rosemary sits down.
The makeup
artists did a great job creating both attractive and un-attractive versions of the
characters. We get to see what Hal sees—and what everyone else sees. For instance, when
Rosemary is walking past a store window, we see the silhouette of an obese woman—but to
Hal, it’s skinny Gwyneth.
Shallow Hal is funny, cleverly done, and
just plain fun to watch. And while it’s rated PG-13, there’s only one scene that’s a bit
risqué for children. It has a great soundtrack, and the DVD offers extra scenes and
footage on the makeup used in the film, all of which are definitely worth watching. This
is definitely a movie to buy, because you’ll want to watch it over and over again.
I’d like to say that watching Shallow Hal will teach viewers not to
be so shallow about people’s appearances, but hey, I think it’s a good movie…not
a
miracle…
