MovieChat Forums > Shallow Hal (2001) Discussion > Movie is the ultimate in hypocrisy.

Movie is the ultimate in hypocrisy.

posted 11 years ago by Huskie_Jon
18 replies | jump to latest

I guess the moral of the story is that beauty is on the inside, and do not judge someone by their looks and/or their weight. Well, that's nice.

So to get the point across, the movie takes someone who is tremendously obese, and makes all kinds of fat jokes. You have the cannon ball in the pool scene, rowing the boat in the air, pigging out at the restaurant, and he even sleeps with her.

Look at Hal! He's dating a FAT woman! Isn't that hilarious!? Doesn't he realize how ridiculous he looks? Ha, ha, ha!

Of course Hal only sees a beautiful woman. You know, beautiful, like Gwyneth Paltrow. You need to look like Gwyneth Paltrow to be beautiful.

So to summarize:

The producer/director makes a movie full of fat jokes, so that they can make money by making fun of fat people.

The viewer should enjoy laughing at the fat jokes, but then the viewer should feel ashamed, because the moral of the story is that beauty is on the inside.

It kind of reminds me of the Breakfast Club.

We are presented with five stereotypical high school students, and the moral of the story is that you should not stereotype people.

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[–] GhostGlow 10 years ago

Good points you just made there!

[–] virgiltx 10 years ago

I think it's true that fat jokes are a part of this. I also think there is a morbid fascination with obesity here. And that morbid fascination sometimes appears in other areas, like photo-art that praises or sensationalizes obesity. Is that any more than the Fat Lady in the carnival side show?

So, I think it's not just humor, but morbid interest also.

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[–] xianjiro 10 years ago

Yeah, I'm totally with you on this. Some funny moments, but the fat-shaming message cloaked in "look for the inner beauty" just doesn't cut it.

[–] the_la_baker 10 years ago

I thought they were comical reminders that he wasn't seeing reality, or the reality everyone else was seeing. I never took it as insulting fat people, just making the bizarre situation clear, which is kinda funny, but i did not get a condescending vibe from the gags.

[–] 10 years ago

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[–] HowYaLikeDemApplesWill 9 years ago

Not to mention, this movie that is trying to make a point about inner beauty, has an unparalleled collection of smoking-hot beautiful women...

Susan Ward
Brooke Burns
Erinn Bartlett
Sascha Knopf
Manon von Gerkan
Sara Stout

Even the 'random' women at bars, on the dance floor, etc..are unbelievably gorgeous.

Whose idea was it for the word "Lisp" to have an "S" in it?

[–] DarthBotto 9 years ago

That's very true; the film has some lovely elements, but they're overshadowed by obtuse fat-shaming. I watched the single scene where Hal meets a visibly-burned Cadence in the hospital and it nearly brought me to tears. But watching it in between the *beep* Nah.

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[–] robken0174 9 years ago

Waaaaah. Please put a sock in it, whiny girl. Most films, shows, and commercials generalize to tell the story.

These pc-obsessed times are getting old.

[–] sage2112 9 years ago

You said it, Robken. Damn even when a story has a good moral like this one, people have to complain about something. Get a life, you bozos.

[–] AllieMDA 9 years ago

Movies can be so much more enjoyable when you allow yourself to suspend disbelief... I'm very good at it. <brag> I'm sure that says something terrible about my character, but whatever.

[–] jlgas 9 years ago

And how does the OP see such a moral in Breakfast Club, when the whole movie obviously tells them otherwise?

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