Shallow Hal
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| Shallow Hal | |
|---|---|
 Shallow Hal movie poster |
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| Directed by | Farrelly brothers |
| Produced by | Farrelly brothers Bradley Thomas |
| Written by | Farrelly brothers Sean Moynihan |
| Starring | Jack Black Gwyneth Paltrow Jason Alexander Joe Viterelli |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
| Release date(s) | November 9, 2001 |
| Running time | 113 minutes |
| Language | English |
| Budget | ~ US$40,000,000 |
| Gross revenue | US$70,703,043 |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Shallow Hal is a 2001 romantic comedy film starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Jack Black and Jason Alexander. It was directed by Peter Farrelly and Bobby Farrelly, and filmed in and around Charlotte, North Carolina as well as Sterling and Holden, Massachusetts.
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[edit] Plot
Hal Larson (Black), a superficial man and his equally-shallow friend Mauricio Wilson (Alexander) both share an interest in beautiful women, and try to act cool and hip when around them, but most women interpret their wild dance moves as obnoxious and want nothing to do with them. At work, Hal's co-workers accuse him of being shallow and caring about nothing but physical appearance, and ask him "when he's gonna get it." Hal wants to see women for their inner beauty, but his appreciation of physical beauty gets in the way. While going to work one day, by an unexpected twist of fate, Hal meets the famous American life coach Tony Robbins while stuck in an elevator, and has a talk with him about himself and Tony. Robbins, understanding Hal's situation, hypnotizes him into seeing people's inner beauty, not their external selves. Subsequently he falls in love with Rosemary (Paltrow), a woman who appears to him to look slender and beautiful due to her kind, generous nature, but is, in actuality, very obese. At first, she accuses him of being childish, because she thinks he's pretending to date her, but later realises his feelings for her are genuine.
His concerned friend Mauricio is worried about Hal's new taste in women, especially when he finds Hal dancing with a fat woman, thinking he's gone crazy. Mauricio believes what Robbins did to him was deceitful and wrong, and he talks to Robbins. One night, while Hal is on a date, Mauricio catches him after having confronted Robbins and says the trigger phrase,"Shallow Hal wants a gal", to break Hal's hypnosis. Discovering that his own sight had misled him, Hal, with Mauricio's assistance, begins to avoid Rosemary, whom he initially fails to recognize. She becomes melancholic without him around. Still distraught, Hal decides to get to know his neighbor, Jill, and the two get together at a restaurant and have a nice chat. Rosemary, suspicious of Hal's staying away, goes to the same restaurant where Hal and his friend are. Making assumptions about his relationship with Jill, she calls him a 'psycho' over the phone, which depresses Hal greatly. The day after, he meets a girl at a hospital where Rosemary works. Previously, due to Robbins' hypnosis, he saw her as a perfect looking little girl, he is now seeing her as a pretty little girl with severe burn marks on her face. This experience clarifies that he doesn't need hypnosis to see people's true inner beauty. Meanwhile, Rosemary decides to leave the country to re-join the Peace Corps. During his search for Rosemary to tell her the truth, he finds that Mauricio himself has his own reason for stopping Hal's hypnosis: he has a vestigial tail which has prevented him from ever getting close to a woman, and he was jealous that his friend found someone with whom he was happy. Hal eventually makes up with Mauricio, comes to terms with his feelings and his true love for Rosemary and decides to talk to her again. He arrives at his destination, the backyard of the Shanahans' mansion, where he makes up with Rosemary. He discovers she still loves him and decides to accompany her on her trip.
The Farrelly Brothers admitted that this was a little bit different then some of their previous comedies, but as with all their movies they like for the audience to feel a connection with each of the characters. Shallow Hal was a more emotional movie and the producers spent a lot of time making sure it would not be portrayed as a mere "fat joke" type of movie, but one that has a strong message associated with it. They wanted a message about seeing the inner beauty in individuals.
[edit] Cast
- Gwyneth Paltrow.... Rosemary Shanahan
- Jack Black .... Hal Larson
- Jason Alexander .... Mauricio Wilson
- Joe Viterelli .... Steve Shanahan
- Rene Kirby .... Walt
- Bruce McGill .... Reverend Larson
- Anthony Robbins .... as Himself
- Susan Ward .... Jill
- Zen Gesner .... Ralph Owens
- Brooke Burns .... Pretty/Ugly Katrina
- Laura Kightlinger ... Jen
- Kyle Gass ... Artie
[edit] Details
- In an interview with The Guardian on 27 January 2006, Paltrow admitted that Shallow Hal was in the category of "shite" films that she made only for money.[1]
- Black admitted that he "sold out" by starring in this film. He stated that he was eager to work with the Farrelly Brothers but the film turned out to be different than he had anticipated. "I wasn't proud of it, and I got paid a lot of money, so in retrospect it feels like a sell-out".[2]
- Celebrated film critic Richard Roeper picked this as the tenth best film of 2001, citing the fact that it was the best of a genre (comedy).
- Gwyneth Paltrow reportedly did some research for her role by donning the fat suit she used during filming, and going to a local bar to gauge the public perception of obese people. She said that people refused to make eye contact with her, and she was treated quite rudely on multiple occasions, and the experience saddened her greatly, with regards to how people treat those who are overweight.
- Rapper Project Pat did a spoof of this movie in his music video "Back Clap (Make Dat Thang Clap)"
- This is the second film by the Farrelly brothers to feature a Foundations song; the song "Baby, Now That I've Found You" can be heard in the soda shop scene. Another Foundations song, "Build Me Up Buttercup" was featured in the film, There's Something About Mary.
- Jason Alexander's character turns down a woman whose second toe is longer than her big toe. This is a reference to the Seinfeld episode "The Tape" where George inquires on his joke about the second toe becoming the leader of the toes when it is larger than the big toe.
- The film was set in Charlotte, North Carolina, a first for the Farrelly Brothers, as most of their past films were set in and around Providence, RI.
- The woman with her second toe bigger than her big toe mentioned a reuniting of the Beatles, with Eric Clapton filling in for John Lennon. George Harrison died 20 days after this movie was released.
- Features cameos by Molly Shannon, Ron Darling and Bruce McGill.
- The Spanish title of this movie is Amor ciego ("Blind Love"), the German one is Schwer verliebt ("Heavily in love"), the Portuguese is O Amor é Cego ("Love is Blind)" and the French one is L'amour extra-large ("Extra-large love").
- The film's score was composed by the band IVY, and has never been released.
