Shallow Hal
Starring: Jack Black, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jason Alexander, Tony Robbins
Directed by: The Farrelly Brothers

It could only be inevitable that the Farrelly brothers would tackle fat people, I mean hell, they’ve mocked everyone else in their movies. From the mentally challenged to the Amish, no one is out of the Farrelly’s mean-hearted nature. Finally they’ve moved to the fat and shallow. Jack Black, in his first lead role, is Hal, a shallow guy, who judges women solely on their outside appearance. Needless to say, he’s no looker himself, but after a chance meeting with self-help guru Anthony Robbins, who puts a “spell” on him that helps him see people for their inner beauty. When Hal meets Rosemary (Paltrow), he quickly falls for the beautiful young girl. Only he doesn’t see what Rosemary really looks like, because Rosemary is huge. The movie has it’s very funny moments, but the Farrelly’s try to put on some sort of semblance of a plot. The plot is stretched as thin as it can get, but they do try. Jack Black just doesn’t seem like his normal self, he comes off as being restrained, and that is unfortunate. He is great in films like High Fidelity, and he was the sole reason I saw Saving Silverman, but with his own starring role, he falters. Maybe it’s the lacking script, or maybe he is just better off as the hilarious sidekick. Who knows. B-