Review of Shallow Hal (2001) by Connor D — 12 May 2015

"Shallow Hal" is the odd story of a man who you could say only goes for women that are physically out of his league. One day, however, he meets a man and gets "hypnotized" to look at women for their inner beauty and not just their looks. He then starts to date a woman that he only sees attractive. As time goes on, we learn that not only is this a film to make us laugh, but it also tries to tell a great moral story of what beauty truly is.

I really wish the filmmakers tried to make this a great film throughout. What I mean by that is that this film, for me, could have easily been at LEAST a three-and-a-half star movie. Heck, it could have probably been four stars, but it seemed that as the film was approaching its last 30 minutes, it fell quick. It followed a cliche that many comedies fall victim of: It got TOO SERIOUS. Don't get me wrong, I like some of my comedies to have heart, but the thing is this film did have heart from the beginning. It just got too sappy. It seemed to try way too hard to be something it isn't. Nevertheless, this film still is a good time for the most part. The laughs aren't consistent throughout, which didn't bother me because after the first few minutes I knew that this was going to be more of a dramedy. So if you're going for a comedy with a great moral story (which did get a little too sappy), then I would recommend giving this film a chance. If you're looking for gut busting humor, look past this one. 6.0/10.