Shallow Hal
I'm not a fan of Jack Black´s movies. There are better things to do in life than sitting down and watch one of his movies, but a couple of them are not so bad.
In 2001 there was this movie called Shallow Hal about an extremealy superficial person, Hal (Jack Black) and his friend Mauricio (Jason Alexander) who spend their free time hitting on only pretty girls. One day Hal is hypnotized so he can see people's inner beauty (or ugliness). It is under this spell that he meets a very large girl called Rosemary (Gwyneth Paltrow). Hal sees her as a slim sexy girl because Rosemary is kind and generous by nature. They fall in love with each other but their romance will face serious jeopardy when Mauricio finds a way to undo Hal's spell and brings him back to his senses.
It is a comedy and it doesn't really go beyond that though it is true that it makes you laugh and that it delivers a timeless message: there is an inner beauty in each person and that is what counts. To be able to discover such beauty is something that is we learn because it does not come naturally. And Hal will learn that one not before facing many funny and awkward situations.
I personally liked one sequence: when Hal goes to a hospital and finds this pretty little girl he calls "a princess" but then when he leaves we get to see how she really looks: the girl has burn scars all over her face.
It truly is a bunch of laughter but also a great opportunity to meditate on the message.
Four stars out of five for this one.
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