Shallow Hal

The basic premise of this silly little romantic comedy is that a very shallow man (Jack Black) gets hypnotized so that he sees only women's inner beauty, and ends up falling for an overweight girl (Gwenyth Paltrow) because he sees her as beautiful. Generally I hate Jack Black, but he was actually tolerable in this movie. Jack Black acting bewildered and confused is always entertaining, I suppose. Jason Alexander ranting and Gwenyth Paltrow breaking everything she sits on is pretty funny too.

It's also a fairly unique premise, which makes the movie stand out a little from other run of the mill romantic comedy trash. Good for a few laughs and a sweet little lesson on love and relationships, although I guess it depends on how you interpret it. First of all, by portraying every ugly girl as attractive in Hal's eyes, the movie makes it seem like all unattractive women are nice people. This is obviously not the case; many ugly people are bitches and/or assholes. Furthermore, I think it's a little ridiculous to say that appearances don't matter and that a relationship should be and can be built solely on other factors. Sure it's wrong to judge someone based solely on how they look, but it is a factor and most all relationships start with some initial physical attraction. Later, personal qualities and other non-physical traits can serve to enhance or reduce attraction. Sure, internal beauty is great and necessary, but there is generally an interplay between inner and external beauty. If I find someone to possess inner beauty, that perception has a tangible impact on how I visually perceive them. I believe that a relationship built disregarding physical attraction is just as doomed to fail as one built solely on looks. Or maybe I'm just shallow, but I like to consider myself a bit of a romantic.

I've been rambling, so I'll try to some this up without getting too deep. The movie has it somewhat right: personality does and should impact attraction, be it physical or otherwise. Whether it can make a fat girl look like Gwenyth Paltrow, you'll have to decide for yourself. Ultimately, it's a pretty good movie. I'll end with a line spoken by the guy who hypnotized Hal to see inner beauty, which I rather like:

"Don't you think you're brainwashed? Everything you know about beauty is programmed. Television, magazines, movies-they're all telling you what's beautiful and what isn't. How is this any different?"