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"WEEKEND STAR" FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2001 - 9 Shallow Hal more than just a comedy, it's a look at moral values ey rd SCREENING ROOM By John Foote SHALLOW HAL Directed by the Farrelly Brothers Now in theatres (***) What a pleasant surprise to see Gwyneth Paltrow in a rowdy, raunchy comedy! Further, what a daring risk for this actress to spoof her own beauty and image with a performance where she spends half the film in a fat suit which gives her the appearance of being obese! True, Eddie Murphy did the same thing in The Nutty Professor (1996), but Murphy had never been taken seriously as a dramatic actor, and was not an Academy Award winner. Paltrow has enjoyed a stunning rise through the industry, culminating -with her Oscar for best actress for Shakespeare in Love (1998), which she has followed with work ranging from superb, as in The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) to dreadful, Duets (2000), and Bounce (2000). She had no trouble choosing chal- lenging roles early in her career with excellent performances in Emma (1996) and Sliding Doors (1998), but with Shakespeare in Love she found a role that merged her talent with a role that demanded much from her. The perfor- mance she gave in that is truly lumi- nous, wonderful to watch and deeply moving. Imagine waking up after the Oscar win and knowing people, critics especially, expect her to top it! She has not, at this writing, done so, but is continually growing as an actress. I was pretty rough on her for her awful work in Duets just last year, and again in the vapid romantic film, Bounce, with that non-acting talent Ben Affleck, but I must admit to really enjoying her per- formance here in Shallow Hal. A romantic comedy is based on the premise, "boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back"; that is the Hollywood combination for making a strong romantic comedy. Woody Allen changed all that in 1977 with Annie Hall when romantic come- dies became realistic with that fourth component, "boy loses girl forever". There have not been many strong romantic comedies made over the last 10 years, with The American President (1995) perhaps the major exception. I do not not include anything with Meg Ryan because she is damned twinkly and works far too hard at being adorable. | mean, really, going into You've Got Mail (1998), is there any doubt at the end of the film Ryan will be with Hanks? Nope, but then historically, that is a romantic comedy and a perfect Hollywood romance... a fairy tale. How else can one explain the success of the Rock Hudson- Doris Day romantic comedies? Fairy tale indeed! Shallow Hal explores what happens when the world's shallowest human being, Hal (Jack Black), is blessed, or cursed, with the ability to see only the inner-beauty in people, therefore hideous women become beautiful in his - eyes. He meets the grossly overweight Rosemary (Paltrow), who to him looks radiant and slim. Here's where the film works wonders... we see her as this over- weight woman in all sorts of hilarious sit- uations and she knows what she looks like... he does not. To Hal, she is always this stunning beauty he cannot get enough of. His friends are horrified, but Hal is literally blinded by love for this internally beautiful woman. Using the old adage beauty is in the eye of the beholder to great extent, the film draws its humour from the situations Hal gets himself into, and from the sight gags of Rosemary as she really is. Overweight people may take offence to the film, but the message should help them get through it. When the spell is broken and Hal must face a Rosemary he does not know, he must look deep inside himself for answers to important questions about what really matters in life. The Farrelly Brothers are best known to audiences for their over the top, pushing-it-to-the-limit humour in such films as Dumb and Dumber (1997), Something About Mary (1998) and Me Myself and Irene (2000). Their broad comedy has often been discussed as too much, gross out humour, but after seeing Tom Green's Freddy Got Fingered (2000), the Farrelly boys can consider themselves subtle filmmakers. Shallow Hal has that same type of pushing-it-out-there humour, but it is also a very tender love story that works on several levels. What could easily have become a fat joke movie becomes an interesting study of internal beauty and what is truly beautiful about peo- ple. The point of the film becomes that the shell we exist in should not matter, what is important is getting to the heart of the person. Paltrow is delightful in the lead role of Rosemary, capturing the true beauty and kindness of Rosemary in both visu- al presentations of the character, the beauty Hal sees and the overweight vol- unteer for the Peace Corps. The look of hurt rejection on her face when Hal real- izes who she is represents one of the most stinging moments in cinema this year. Again, this is a daring performance because it could have become ridicu- lous, but Paltrow is too fine an actress to allow that to happen. As Hal, Jack Black gives the type of performance that makes comic stars of actors. He gave a superb supporting performance in last year's cult hit High Fidelity (2000), portraying a used record store clerk with more than a little bit of attitude, but also more than a bit of musical talent. His performance as Hal is both moving and deeply funny because at one time in our lives we have all been Hal, aware only of superficial beauty and things. 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