Shallow Hal (2001)

Seemingly misinterpreted by the majority of critics on its release, the Farrelly brothers sixth film is a surprisingly touching one which also fails to muster many laughs. Whilst this might be considered a critical failing of a film sold as a Farrelly brothers' comedy, it strangely makes Shallow Hal more interesting than it might have otherwise been.

Jack Black's Hal spends his nights being rejected by various beautiful women at nightclubs with his friend Mauricio. One day, he finds himself trapped in a lift with life coach Tony Robbins (playing himself) who tries to get Hal to think outside his usual perimeters, and stop simply taking people at surface level, therefore seeing their inner beauty.

Tony tacks into something inside Hal, meaning that Hal now doesn't see women as they appear, he only sees their inner beauty taking the form of their physical bodies. He soon falls for Gwyneth Paltrow's Rosemary, who is morbidly obese; but Hal sees only a beautiful slender blonde, falling in line with her personality.

Paltrow has since condemned the film and her part in it, claiming it was offensive to wear a fat suit, but suggesting you weren't aware that a Farrelly brothers' comedy might be offensive before you signed up certainly raises eyebrows.

Shallow Hal actually has a good heart, Rosemary never complains about her weight and is fully aware of her own actions in looking the way that she does, and the film raises excellent notions around getting to know someone for who they really are instead of just discarding them for looks alone.

Tony Robbins is terrific at playing himself, and the points he makes in the film should be taken on by everyone, we might just learn a thing or two.

So despite not being particularly amusing, Shallow Hal is something of an odd success for the Farrelly's whether they intentioned it as such or not; the film portrays life as it sometimes can be without passing judgment on anyone, but without sugar coating the realities of it either. 6.1/10