So close, yet so far
Written: Sep 08 '09 (Updated Oct 30 '09)
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Product Rating:
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| Bang For The Buck |
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Pros: Both leads are likable and can be very funny, especially Butler
Cons: Completely falls apart in the third act.
The Bottom Line: The Ugly Truth stumbles in its third act. This is too bad, given all the things it has going for it.
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| wrestler's Full Review: The Ugly Truth |
The Ugly Truth screams of unrealized potential. The romantic comedy formula has been worked and reworked so much that the average viewer shows up to films like these begging the screenwriters to surprise them. Imagine the frustration I felt when I, however briefly, was under the impression that they had gotten the message, only to realize they didn't. This movie takes off the usual romantic comedy sugar-coating, but forgets to ditch the predictability.
Katherine Heigl is Abby, the producer of a Sacramento early morning TV news show. The show is anchored by an old married couple whose issues are getting in the way of their chemistry, and the show's ratings are in the tank. Still, Abby has the cliche, ever-so-quickly-abandoned-in-the-movies principles about what the news should be, and so she is enraged when her boss forces her to hire Mike Chadway (Gerard Butler), a local cable machismo whose views on man/woman relationships seem pulled straight out of a Football locker room.
It only takes Mike one appearance on the show to straighten out the couple's problems the crude way and by the end of the segment, husband and wife are shamelessly kissing on the set, doing too much with the tongue in front of an exhilarated big boss and a depressed Abby.
Speaking of Abby, she is one of those movie women who can't find a good man despite looking like Katherine Heigl. It also doesn't help that she holds a endless checklist of criteria which a man must meet in order to be good enough for her. In spite of all this, she meets such a man (Eric Winter), her neighbor, luckily enough, who is a young orthopedic surgeon apparently parachuted straight from the latest Calvin Klein underwear photo shoot. They get acquainted after the semi-obligatory utterly implausible scene in which she tries to grab her cat off a tree but gets distracted by the doctor drying off after a shower. She then falls down, sprains an ankle and yet is left hanging upside down on one of the branches. Oh, and did I mention she's wearing night time garments no woman would wear even on her front lawn and he's just wearing... you got it... his towel. Will it come off? Guess.
But desperate people do desperate things and even though she hates him, Abby makes a deal with Mike. She'll help him out at the station if he coaches her up on how to deal with her Romeo.
Both leads are likable, especially Butler whose comedic timing really helps out the film a lot. The problem is that, like most romantic comedies, The Ugly Truth's plot goes beyond the realm of plausibility and then some. Very rarely do women who look like Katherine Heigl think as her character does here. They, to various degrees, would at least somewhat enjoy the attention that comes from looking like that in real life.
Also, I wonder if a single TV station in the U.S. would allow a word of Mike Chadway's discourse to be spoken on morning TV. Here is a man who goes off-script, uses foul language as if paid by the word and runs through an entire segment while footage of gorillas copulating is shown behind him. All this while kids might be watching? I have my doubts. And suppose the station did allow him to ramble on about sex in the morning, any TV personality who gets the ratings he does would find himself on prime time in a New York minute, long before ever getting the spot on Craig Ferguson's show, which Chadway gets in the movie.
Speaking of the Late Late Show, before it reaches this point, the movie is actually doing pretty well. The Katherine Heigl control freak is a terrific opposite to Butler's rugged-talking so-called sexpert. He has quite a few funny lines including the trailer chuckler: "Listen up, ladies. You want a relationship? Here's how you get one: It's called a stairmaster. Get on it. No one falls in love with your personality at first sight."
However, thinking back on it, Chadway's appearance on the Late Late Show turns out to be the time when the movie hits a wall. It goes downhill from there, suddenly pulling its punches and falling into the predictability we briefly though it had aptly avoided. Everything that happens from then until the end of the movie is one predictable, implausible rubble of garbage that ends in a hot-air baloon scene that looks shot with 1970's special effects. Shame. How frustrated must Butler and Heigl be, because the movie sure doesn't fail from a lack of them trying.
Note: The brutal third act does contain one of the film's funniest lines. Chadway quits the station after a falling out with Abby, and his replacement begins his first segment by saying: "You're looking at a man who has had sex with over 137 women, most of them conscious." There, now you don't have to go through the disappointment. You're welcome.
Recommended:
No
Movie Mood: Girl Movie
Viewing Method: Other
Film Completeness: A few glitches, but mostly complete.
Worst Part of this Film: Plot
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Epinions.com ID:
wrestler
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Member: Alexandre Turp
Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Reviews written: 163
Trusted by: 17 members
About Me:
Evolution is all that matters.
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