Name an emotion, and I probably experienced it while watching Shallow Hal (2001).  There are also a wide range of directions in which I would like to take this review, and many of them are tied to the title.  For example, I saw it in the theater when it came out, and I cannot claim that I was a deep or sensitive guy when I was twenty-one, though I would have thought differently at that time.  I saw it because it had Gwyneth Paltrow in it, to whom I was attracted for her good looks, and Jack Black for the juvenile humor.  In turn, I completely missed any sort of message that the movie was (and is) trying to convey.  It tries, but it does not always succeed.  The obvious take away is that beauty is more than the shape of our bodies and faces.  This is not unique cinematic material.  It is in the way that it is presented that had me waffling as to how I felt about it.  Much of what proceeds will be me working through these notions.

The beginning of Shallow Hal had this Christian momentarily piqued since a young Hal Larson (Sasha Neulinger) is ushered into the hospital room of his soon to die father, the Reverend Larson (Bruce McGill).  Since this is a comedy, and the movie sets up what is about to happen by showing you Reverend Larson’s painkiller induced delirium, any hope I had was minimal.  Sure enough, dad tells his son to only pursue hot women before promptly flatlining.  While traumatized, little Hal takes this advice to heart.  This is why in the next scene you see the grown-up Hal (Jack Black) only approaching those with pretty faces and skinny figures while dancing at the club.  He is there with his best friend, Mauricio Wilson (Jason Alexander), who is even more selective, to be charitable, with the women to whom he talks. Unsurprisingly, they do not have any luck, and to make matters worse, they lack understanding as to what it is that they are doing wrong.  To illustrate Hal’s blindness, we see him being brushed off by his neighbor, Jill (Susan Ward), who he thinks he is dating.  They are not, and he is again surprised when she tells him so.  He believes he can take solace in the fact that he is going to get a promotion at work the next day.  This, too, proves false.  To top it all, he gets stuck in an elevator with renowned motivational speaker Tony Robbins (as himself).  Their conversation turns to relationships, and what becomes abundantly clear to Tony is that Hal is exactly what the title suggests.  Thus, before they are rescued, Tony manages to convince Hal to let the self-help guru change how Hal sees women.  Of course, Hal does not notice what Tony has done.  Instead, Hal walks out into the world and encounters a woman he thinks would normally be out his league, and offers to share a taxi.  To the driver, she is gangly with large, yellowed teeth.  In Hal’s eyes, she is a knock out.  He takes this newfound, um . . . power (a Tony Robbins appropriate word) to the club and begins dancing with three other women who, again, appear great to him, but others, namely Mauricio, find repulsive.  Hal does not get why Mauricio is acting as if these women are unattractive.  Hal’s pursuit of other women is soon narrowed to one, though, when he sees Rosemary “Rosie” Shanahan (Gwyneth Paltrow).  She is the prettiest woman he has ever seen.  After a bumpy start, she begins to wear down in listening to the flattery he never tires of giving her, and a serious relationship develops.  Mauricio is, as expected, incredulous, though he is not alone.  There are several instances of people reacting to Rosie’s actual size, prompting many a chivalrous act on Hal’s part.  He also dismisses her healthy appetite as a good sign, being tired of the kind of women who typically refuse to eat anything substantial.  It also helps that Rosie turns out to be the daughter of Steve Shanahan (Joe Viterelli), the owner of the company for which Hal works.  His co-workers think Hal is only with Rosie for advancement, which does come after he meets her parents.  Yet, Hal is only able to achieve such a position after having a serious discussion with Steve about his daughter.  Steve also assumes that Hal is after Rosie for personal gain, to which Hal takes umbrage.  Indeed, this is the position that most people take, but so long as Hal continues to see the inner-person of Rosie, and others like her, then he continues to convince them otherwise.  Mauricio is the one who ruins everything.  Wanting his friend back, he tracks down Tony and convinces the celebrity to give him a phrase that will lift the veil, so to speak, on how Hal is looking at the world.  Suddenly, there is the morbidly obese Rosie instead of the slim version with whom he has fallen in love.  Hal further allows Mauricio to convince his friend that he should no longer see Rosie.  Instead, Hal finally gives in to Jill’s increasingly persistent demands that they go out.  They end up at the same restaurant that Rosie is attending with her parents.  It is at this point that Hal decides that he has made a terrible mistake.  Yet, he does not recognize Rosie there, walking right past her to call using a payphone (which were still a thing at this time).  Once more, Hal realizes that he has messed up badly, and it takes him agreeing to join the Peace Corps with her for him to win her back.  This is where the film ends.

So, it is great that Shallow Hal learns to be less of what the title says about him.  In a larger sense, only God can truly see the things that are discussed in this movie, which should make having a relationship with Him seem that much more important.  Unfortunately, any discussion of the Almighty is conspicuously absent, but that is to be expected.  If God had been more a part of this conversation, perhaps they could have treated some elements of the story better.  The main problem is in the dichotomy between beautiful and ugly.  It is dealing with stereotypes that are just as superficial as the first word in the title.  The premise, as viewed through Hal’s newfound gift, is that ugly people possess inner beauty, while those who have the looks are ugly on the inside.  There does not seem to be any blending of these two extremes, unless you count Jill.  She is gorgeous throughout.  However, would that not make her the perfect woman given the logic of this film?  At the same time, she had earlier rejected Hal for similarly shallow reasons.  Would that not also make her ugly with this new way he has of viewing the world?  Again, this is all taken care of quite nicely by Faith.  Attraction, be it emotional, physical, or spiritual, are all factors that should be considered in approaching a member of the opposite sex.  It is a matter of looking at the whole person, which is also something that only God is capable of fully doing.  To close the loop of this circular logic, this once more reinforces the importance of relying on God.  We can get a glimpse of the true essence of a person, but it takes assitance beyond our own means.

The only part at which I laughed in Shallow Hal upon this most recent viewing was seeing Mauricio’s vestigial tail.  Does that also make me superficial?  At the same time, I was moved when Hal brushes past Rosie in the restaurant without recognizing her.  Credit should be given to Paltrow for her portrayal of the character, and her willingness to wear the prosthetics needed to make her look several pounds heavier.  She is talented, though I wonder if it could have been better used here.