Extras: Audio Commentary, Deleted Scenes, HBO "Making Of" Special,
Comedy Central featurette, Music Video, Make Up Featurette, Stunts Featurette,
Trailer
Directors:
Peter Farrelly & Bobby Farrelly
Screenplay:
Sean Moynihan, Peter Farrelly & Bobby Farrelly
Cast:
Hal Larson: Jack Black
Rosemary Shanahan: Gwyneth Paltrow
Mauricio Wilson: Jason Alexander
Steve Shanahan: Joe Viterelli
Walt: Rene Kirby
Jill: Susan Ward
Katrina: Brooke Burns
After the big disappointment
of the Farrelly Brothers' last venture,
Me, Myself & Irene,
they return with the slightly more satisfying
Shallow Hal. Unlike its immediate predecessor, Shallow Hal is a far
more mellow film, almost ambling along a fairly predictable path with a
smattering of bad taste humour. In many ways it represents a more mature
outing for the Farrelly's - who paved the way for 90's bad taste comedy
with their 1994 hit Dumb & Dumber.
Jack Black (the chubby scene-stealer from High Fidelity) plays Hal; a
normal, polite, hardworking guy... with just one character flaw - he's
extremely shallow about his taste in women. However, after a chance
meeting with a self-help guru in a broken elevator, Hal is "brainwashed"
into only seeing the inner beauty of people. From that day on, Hal
begins perceiving even the most ugly people as drop dead gorgeous
supermodels, and unlikeable beauties as grotesque freaks. Then he meets
Rosemary - an overweight behemoth in the shapely form of Gwyneth
Paltrow...
It's a simple concept, dripping with comic potential. Sadly, Shallow
Hal never manages to soar with its high-concept idea, sticking instead
to obvious sight gags and crass jokes regardling physical appearances.
There are a few neat flourishes to be found here and there (mostly
regarding the revelation of various peoples true appearances throughout
the film), but overall the jokes are fairly mundane or painfully
obvious.
Jack Black makes a strong impression as Hal, obviously gifted with a
keen sense of comic timing, but also exhibiting strong acting potential.
Black pushes the film along whenever the gags become tired, or starved,
and saves the film in many areas. In a film that's supposedly a comedy
romance between two people, Black is on centre stage far more often than
co-star Gwyneth Paltrow, and makes full use of his screentime.
Gywneth Paltrow is sadly lumbered with a generally uninteresting role
that's merely a stereotype of overweight women. She brings a sweet
sincerity and humanity to the weakly-written part, and has rarely shone
so beautifully in a movie, but it's a 2-dimensional character far
beneath her abilities. I was hopeful Paltrow could have provided more
meat when, in the latter third of the movie, she is more often viewed as
the "real" Rosemary (engulfed in a marvellous fat-suit) - but Paltrow
fails to project her character through the layers of fake flab.
Jason Alexander provides excellent support as Maurice, the best friend
of Hal with serious hang-ups over women's appearances. He gets some of
the best comeback lines, and spars well with Black... but this is hardly
a stretch for him, as he's merely regurgitating his "Seinfeld" role for
film audiences.
The screenplay exhibits the charm and punchiness of earlier Farrelly
scripts, although it's almost 'Farrelly-lite' in many areas. The bad
taste angle often seems shoehorned in to give fans what they expect from
a Farrelly film (a character cursed with spinobyfida is mostly
superflous to anything in the film, for instance). There are also far
less standout sequences than prior Farelly films - with the best moments
given away in the trailer, and the others mildly amusing but very
predictable given the concept.
What is most appealing about Shallow Hal is the warmth it genuinely
shows regarding Hal's viewpoint on women - particularly towards the end.
A key facet to the Farrelly's work has always been their wonderful
ability to poke fun at people in a very politically incorrect manner,
but with plenty of genuine warmth and lack of maliciousness. This is a
tradition they continue with Shallow Hal in most respects -
particularly when Hal visits children who have been victims of horrific
burns.
The Farrelly Brothers again direct a movie with little flare or
ingenuity, merely choosing to film scenes in the style of a television
comedy. It would be nice if they began to exhibit some skill and
originality behind the camera (it has been almost 10 years since their
first film!) As it is, their direction gets the job done on a basic
level of "film the actors performances", interspersed with their
penchant for loud contemporary musical punctuations.
Overall then, Shallow Hal is an enjoyable enough movie, but lacks the
edge of earlier Farrelly fare, and is sadly lacking in memorable
moments. The cast are merely adequate, with the exception of rising star
Jack Black, but the real problem with the film is the lack of consistent
laughs and a screenplay that tends to wander into dead-ends or, worse,
just fails to capture the comic potential of its central theme.
Shallow Hal bounces onto Region 1 DVD in an Amaray case containing
just one disc, thankfully packed with a nice selection of extra
features. The animated menus are easy to navigate, although they commit
the heinous offence of giving away snippets from the movie. The bulk of
the discs' menus are still images and moderately animated pictures with
snatches of dialogue from the movie - which load quickly and exude a
bouncy charm.
Picture quality is very good; with the 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen
transfer relatively practically fautless. I detected a few 'waves'
pulsing across the image in places, but there was no sign of grain and
colours were vibrant and sparky.
Sound quality was good, with the Dolby Digital 5.1 mix generally rooting
the dialogue in the centre speaker, with a moderation of sound effects
from the rear speakers. This isn't exactly a demo disc to show off your
surround sound setup, but the occassional musical outbursts the
Farrelly's love so much are enjoyably loud and quite immersive.
Thankfully, the Extra Features on the disc are also a worthy addition to
the R1 release. First we have a 'Director's Commentary Track' from the
Farrelly Brothers (Peter and Bobby). The pair give their unique insight
into the making of the film. Sadly the Brothers' commentary is quite
lacking in any kind of deep insight into anything much, ther than
pointing out background details.
There are also a number of Trailers on this disc. The 'Theatrical
Trailer' for the film is an amusing one, which sadly gives away the
few great gags the film has in its arsenal! There's also a "Farrelly
Brothers Trailer" which is a trailer designed to advertise the DVD
releases of There's Something About Mary, Me, Myself & Irene and
Say It Isn't So! It's packed full of the best moments from these three
movies. Curiously, the best gag is from Say It Isn't So!, which is
easily the worst movie the Farrelly's have been involved in!
We also have a trailers for the movies Unfaithful, Minority Report
and Banger Sisters. Which is a good thing, or a bad thing depending on
your personal stance with bundled advertising. Personall, I don't mind -
as long as the trailers aren't forced on you.
Also included on the DVD are 11 'Deleted Scenes' (with/without
commentary). These include: "Guess Who Got The Promotion?" "Bed Ditch",
"Sorority", "Cab Gag", "Beginning Gym", "Rene Sings", "Phone Sex/Gym 2",
"Karma Dog", "Fight In The Park" and "Scene 11 v3". As with most deleted
scenes, most are deservedly excised from the movie - but a few raise
some wry smiles.
Shallow Hal has a number of 'Featurettes' on its packed disk,
including a "HBO Making Of Special" - which is yet another light making
of featurette which moderately covers the bases you'd expect, but
reveals nothing more. "Comedy Central Reel Comedy" is a slightly more
in-depth 'making of' featurette, blessed with a more appealing style
than the HBO offering.
"Seeing Through The Layers" is an interesting 'making of' documentary
outlining the fantastic makeup effects that transformed the hourglass
Gwyneth Paltrow into the tubby 300lbs Rosemary. Finally, "In The Deep
End" explains how the filmmakers managed to make it appear slender
Gwyneth Paltrow created a massive splash in a pool. Interesting, but
hardly a revelation to anyone with a ounce of intelligence! To round
everything off, there's even a 'Music Video' - "Wall In Your Heart", by
Shelby Lynne.
Overall then, Shallow Hal benefits from a fairly substantial DVD
release, bolstered by a great transfer of the actual film. The majority
of the extra features are pleasing - especially if you're a fan of the
film - but offer only a few highlights for casual viewers lured into
flicking through the disk once the film's credits begin to roll...
Reviewed using a Toshiba SD210e DVD Player connected to a Toshiba 32"
32ZD09B widescreen TV with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound.
DVDfever.co.uk - Est. February 25th 2000
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
After the big disappointment
of the Farrelly Brothers' last venture,
Jack Black makes a strong impression as Hal, obviously gifted with a
keen sense of comic timing, but also exhibiting strong acting potential.
Black pushes the film along whenever the gags become tired, or starved,
and saves the film in many areas. In a film that's supposedly a comedy
romance between two people, Black is on centre stage far more often than
co-star Gwyneth Paltrow, and makes full use of his screentime.
Shallow Hal bounces onto Region 1 DVD in an Amaray case containing
just one disc, thankfully packed with a nice selection of extra
features. The animated menus are easy to navigate, although they commit
the heinous offence of giving away snippets from the movie. The bulk of
the discs' menus are still images and moderately animated pictures with
snatches of dialogue from the movie - which load quickly and exude a
bouncy charm.