The Ugly Truth Review
Posted by alvin on Monday, 10.05.2009 01:37 PM
Tags: romcom
The Ugly Truth is a romantic comedy or a "RomCom" and even though this is outside of my comfort zone, I am choosing to review this film because I legitimately liked it, weirdly enough.
Like any true romantic comedy, 2 seemingly incompatible people (Abby Richter, an uptight producer at a local morning show and Mike Chadway, a hard-headed male chauvinist hosting a popular show in public access) cross paths. Following true romcom conventions, Abby and Mike don't get along for most of the movie but would eventually learn that they actually love each other and their differences actually play to each other strengths. Sweet I know.
So it begins...
But what sets the Ugly Truth from most romantic movies out there? To be perfectly honest, not much. The film follows a predictable plot wherein guy meets girl, girl hates guy but guy offers to help girl get a boyfriend, girl succeeds but guy realizes he actually loves girl, guy and girl get into a situation where they see how compatible they are, things gets awkward but guy chooses to tell girl how he really feels, the new boyfriend answers the door and ruins the guy's spirit, girl gets mad for the guy chickening out, eventually they makeup and come finally come together on a balloon. There, that's the whole movie in one paragraph and yeah, you probably heard it all before.
I can't work with you, but I love you.
What really sets this movie apart from other romantic comedies is the writing. The film can be brutally honest and reminded my alot of "He's Just Not That Into You" especially on Mike's approach towards women. Call it mirroring of opinions but he did raise alot of good points about women and relationships, to the point that I was actually nodding at some parts. Abby is pretty relatable as well despite Katherine Heigl unfair standards in the looks department. I am no lady, but I could see why she would act the way that she did and how one would respond to something as contradictory as Mike in the first place. The film also does not shy away with the language. I am positive I heard atleast the word fuck, blowjob, penis and a number of double entendre during the span of the film. Let's just say, the movie doesn't shy away from sex in general which is good in my opinion.
Every man's dream. He is my hero.
Performance wise, I think Katherine Heigl did a good job with her character; but then again, her character isn't really that hard to portray. Gerard Butler however, I wasn't sold though in the beginning. Come on, the guy was King Leonides for god sakes! It is kind of hard to picture him in a romantic comedy after seeing him stab guys in the face. But yeah, he sold me on the role after dropping a few truth bombs and acting how we all want to act, awesome. The rest of the cast are fairly forgettable and was clearly there to define the main characters and create/enhance conflict which is not really a bad thing.
What are you doing?
To sum it all up, this is alot like most romantic comedies you have seen before. In fact, you probably have seen this movie already in some shape or form. But despite the mediocre plot, they have enough clever writing and interesting events in the movie to warrant a smile, a chuckle or a violent slap on the arm. They aren't really re-inventing the wheel with the Ugly Truth, but they are sure making it a tad sexier.
Tags: romcom
