The movie Shallow Hal makes me a little bit angry. I understand that there is a good moral behind the story. Believe me; I do view people for who they are not what they look like. I just still think it is a movie making fun of fat people and people with disabilities. Yes, I know it is a comedy and Jack Black movie but still it just leaves a small bit of bitterness on my tongue.
In my thirty years on this planet I have learned that most people are not the whole package. No one is beautiful, smart, funny, wealthy, and popular. We all have our hang-ups. However, I think it is often our hang-ups that make us who we are in this world. How often are the best comedians gorgeous? Just about never. People have a way of taking something they are good at and accentuating it to hide their lesser qualities.
In the movie, one of the concepts they talk about is “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” I feel like that is often true. I know that physical beauty is not what makes someone beautiful. I know this because I am not a beautiful person. I never have been a beautiful person and I probably never will be. When I was younger and thinner men thought I was cute, hot or sexy but never beautiful. I think that once I came to terms with that fact I was a lot happier with myself. I am not a beautiful person. I know that I have a lot of redeeming qualities but beauty is not one of them.
Okay, enough of the ranting, let’s talk about the movie.
If you have not seen the movie, here is the basic
idea. Hal, played by Jack Black, is a shallow
man. He only wants to date women who are
attractive. Not just model attractive but
perfect super model attractive. Hal has a friend
Mauricio, played by Jason Alexander, who he shares his shallow
views. One day Hal is trapped on an elevator
which motivation speaker/writer Tony Robbins.
Tony Robbins puts a “spell” on Hal that he will see people for who
they are inside and not what they look like on the
outside. So Hal starts meeting all these smoking
hot women everywhere he goes and of course they love him
back. Mauricio thinks he has gone
crazy. Hal meets Rosemary, they fall in love and
all is well. They go out to dinners, meet the
parents, and volunteer at a hospital. Mauricio
meets Tony Robbins and finds out how to stop the
“spell.” Mauricio breaks the spell and Hal
starts to realize that everyone in his life now is ugly including
Rosemary. GASP. Then he
realizes that he loves Rosemary for who she is and not what she
looks like. They live happily ever
after. Add in a bunch of fat jokes and
disability jokes and that is the movie.
Why did there have to be so many fat jokes? Why did Rosemary have to break so many chairs? Wasn’t one enough? I get it, she is a big girl. The story had a good moral behind it but why did I feel like the movie people even thought that was a joke? It just makes me a little unhappy.
Thoughts?
