Critics and the movie-going public alike have treated few directors with more fickleness than they have the Farrelly brothers — it’s generally a crapshoot as to which manifestation of their notoriously juvenile sense of humor we’re willing to swallow.
The main source of comedy in “There’s Something About Mary,” judged by many as the funniest movie of the ’90s, was a mental retard; meanwhile, the same joke taken on in different forms in far superior efforts like “Dumb and Dumber” or “Kingpin” is immediately dismissed as too asinine for widespread public consumption. What’s more, any attempt by the Farrelly brothers at making a smart or mature film (“Osmosis Jones” and “Outside Providence,” respectively) is just flat-out ignored.
Their latest, “Shallow Hal,” is a not-so-high-concept picture that attempts to marry the infamous Farrelly gross-out gags with earnest melodrama, but ultimately fails in trying to have it both ways.
The formula is eerily similar to 1998’s “Mary” — there’s the comely young female star for box-office draw (Gwyneth Paltrow, “Bounce”), the budding comedian looking for that breakthrough role (Jack Black, “Saving Silverman”) and the recognizable face in a supporting role for added comfort (Jason Alexander, “Pretty Woman”).
Black plays the womanizing title character, a man whose father’s dying words to him were that he shouldn’t settle for “routine poon-tang.” Hal and best friend Mauricio (Alexander, once again doing his best George Costanza impersonation) live up to this advice every night, pursuing only those women who are easy on the eyes. But after a chance encounter with self-help guru Tony Robbins, Hal is only able to see women for their inner beauty.
Automatically assuming that all good-looking women are trifling dolts and all unattractive ones have hearts like Mother Teresa, “Shallow Hal” spends about half its running time exhausting the same “Can’t-you-see-she’s-fat-and-ugly?” joke in as many different situations as possible, especially when Hal falls in love with the morbidly obese daughter of his boss, Rosemary (Paltrow).
“Shallow Hal” goes to great lengths to let audiences know that beauty is only skin deep no matter how many layers you have to go through to get to it, but then negates it all with flat-out unfunny jokes like a chair collapsing under the weight of its occupant which, not surprisingly, is used more than once.
In the absence of truly funny material, the Farrellys once again resort to their favorite plan B — handicapped people. This time they sink to horrifyingly new lows by attempting to milk laughs from a character with spina bifida.
Few actors, save perhaps Steve Zahn, have had their talent as badly squandered by poor material as Jack Black. He sleepwalks through the movie, looking frustrated that he has to remain oblivious to the facile storylines unfolding around him. “Shallow Hal” should’ve been his time to shine, yet we only get glimpses of the sort of googley-eyed, flamboyant chicanery he’s so damn good at.
The film undergoes a rather abrupt change in tone in its latter third, with jokes taking a back seat to sentimentality. The shift might not have been so jarring had the Farrellys not spent so much time running the same gags into the ground, or if they had made their collective mind up sooner as to which movie they wanted to make. The end product makes you feel as good as a three-hour binge at Old Country Buffet, and then just as guilty for having done it.
