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100Unafraid of walking the fine line between the repellent and the human, Shallow Hal is wickedly funny but heartfelt.
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80May be the best Farrellys movie yet, even though it doesn't live up to the pair's usual level of uproarious, crass comic genius. They're learning, movie by movie, to articulate ideas that are more and more sophisticated, without being oppressively heavy-handed.
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80The most shocking thing about it may be its unabashed sincerity.
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80The Farrellys have set themselves the awesome task of arguing passionately for the non-importance of appearance while at the same time making relentless sport of it. The happy news is that they pull it off: In Shallow Hal, they've contrived a deeply humanist gross-out comedy.
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75Paltrow is truly touching. And Black, in his first big-time starring role, struts through with the blissful confidence of a man who knows he was born for stardom.
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75The belly laughs finally start to come --legitimately.
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75You can't help cheering on Shallow Hal. That and the fact that it's not at all politically correct. It's something better. It's big-hearted, and it's funny.
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70Shallow Hal is "Shrek" for grown-ups, a fairy tale right down to its reverse-Cinderella plot.
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70[Farrellys'] great achievement is forcing those of us addicted to eye candy to see we have a problem.
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67Something is happening to our boys: They're getting mushy. Shallow Hal is not so much about how gross people are as how beautiful they are once you get beyond the rude, noisy flesh. It's a sermon wrapped in a fat suit.
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63So intent on driving home its worthy if not mind-blowing message that it becomes surprisingly conventional.
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63The laughs are there, but the movie's main asset is Paltrow, mournful and always braced for the worst.
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63The movie is shrewd by giving the bulk of its piggish dialogue to Alexander, an actor incapable of projecting genuine cruelty on screen.
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63Who else in Hollywood would've met a non-actor with spina bifida (Rene Kirby), created a role for him, then shot him dancing and skiing on his hands to show how easily he fit into society?
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60The surprisingly sweet Shallow Hal finds Peter and Bobby retreating to a gentler mode -- and, in the process, a far less funny one.
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50Most of the time we see her through Hal's idealizing eyes, though -- no surprise, since Hollywood won't let glittery stars like Paltrow play down their sex appeal for long.
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50Who would have thought one of the best things about the new Farrelly brothers' movie is a cameo by Tony Robbins?
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50Black, who all but stole "High Fidelity," is disappointingly bland and one-note in his first starring role.
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50Suffers from "Bridget Jones" Syndrome but without that movie's charms.
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50Shallow Hal begs for the Farrellys to unleash their arsenal of offensiveness, but they want to be liked so much they appear afraid to offend. The result is safe, well-meaning and dull.
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50Some good gross-out inventiveness, but too heartfelt by half. Do we really need the Farrellys to champion inner beauty?
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50Not only light on laughs but discomfitingly didactic in its disgust.
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50Fortunately for the brothers, when your protagonist is personified as Jack Black, you can get away with a lot.
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40Something of a cop-out, lacking the courage of its convictions.
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40Could use a little extra comic poundage. The Farrelly brothers' latest sees the team tapping a sweeter, milder vein of humor than their outrageous norm.
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38A one-joke movie. What makes it misfire is that its one joke clashes with its one idea.
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30When a human joke like Tony Robbins is the only one who comes away from your movie smelling like a rose, there's a real problem in Farrellyland.
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30For the first time, the Farrellys seem to be embarrassed by their own crudeness. For the first time, they should be.
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30Lacks even a vestige of subtlety and is rarely so much as amusing. Viewers with fond memories of the brothers' wildly funny "There's Something About Mary" will be astonished at how few laughs the current venture has.
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30We [Farrellys'] mock, they say, because we care. But that doesn't make the film elevating or amusing.
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20Shallow Hal makes the case for restricting the Farrellys to mere gross-out movies.
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20Nothing could save this movie. These guys make a fortune off the comedy of cruelty. How dare they climb on a soapbox?
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10What they've done here goes beyond gross -- or clumsy, or dumb -- to genuine ugliness, both cutaneous and sub.
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User score distribution:
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Positive: 17 out of 25
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Mixed: 2 out of 25
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Negative: 6 out of 25
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GaborA.6Holds it together for an even shorter amount of time than most Hollywood comedies, but the first hour or so is genuinely funny.