Bet ween the Frames

All about real film criticism
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Friday , October 9 , 2009

The Ugly Truth: Lewdly Annoying

Posted by betweentheframes , Reader : 703 , 16:29:09

We all know that men and women don't always think alike, especially when it comes to romance and relationships. It seems that the divide between male and female perspectives couldn't get any wider. The question is: if men and women see romance so differently, how in the world do we ever manage to get on the same page? As directed by Robert Luketic, The Ugly Truth tries to answer that question, with implausible answers, revolving around mating monkeys, bikini-clad women wrestling in Jell-O and vibrating underwear. This offensive relationship comedy follows a breathtakingly beautiful and exceptionally accomplished but romantically incompetent producer Abby Richter (Katherine Heigl) enrolls the help of the insensitive new star Mike Chadway (Gerard Butler), the host of the titular cable TV show -- a shock jock with the emotional maturity of a fifteen-year-old boy who just discovered dad’s secret cache of Playboy magazines. He proclaims the supposed ugly truth that all men are sex-consumed animals, and that a woman’s job is to play to that -- to ensnare, by artful talk, her gentlemanly neighbor Colin (Eric Winter), her perfect man, into a relationship. Mike is a crude chauvinist who proclaims that women need to accept this "ugly truth" if they're going to have any hope of a successful relationship. He immediately goes all My Fair Lady, transforming regular Abby into sultry, sexy, compliant Abby—complete with blond hair extensions, curve-hugging evening wear and instructions to laugh at everything Colin says. While promising and amusingly entertaining at the get go, unfortunately, The Ugly Truth is really no more than a contrived collection of amusing situations that fail to add up to much of any substance of the matter. However, despite its weak development and unconvincing chemistry, through its story are still delivered several truths that are worth thinking about. Although both Abby and Mike begin the film with nearly opposite views of love and relationship, the film is one that essentially ends up acknowledging and disproving them both. If all a woman has to attract a man is five seconds in passing on a city street, physical appearances really are about the only hand she's got to play. If a woman manages to get a minute or two more to grab a man's attention, Mike's rules, however shallow, actually do make sense considering how easy it is to scare or bore a man away. As the story unfolds, however, and both Abby and Mike find themselves relating to each other and others beyond more than just an initial meeting, what they both discover is that when it comes to love and relationships, simply following a certain set of rules or seeking out a specific set of qualifications just isn't going to cut it. Certainly, when the story begins, the "ugly truth" is that very often there are only a select few attributes which will cause a man to fall for a woman and that the ideal man who many of women search for simply doesn't exist. However, as the film unfolds, perhaps the even harder-to-swallow truth is that finding love is about a much more complex set of variables. As Abby reveals from the beginning and Mike dares to show a bit later on, while shortlists and specific qualities may drive their initial consideration of someone as a romantic interest, both of them ultimately desire a relationship with someone who has the ability to do more than just look good on paper. In time, we discover that both of them ultimately want to be someone who can be of value to another person for more than just one night. And as love based on a carefully-crafted image topples in the face of love based on full disclosure, we see that while it is not impossible get someone to say "I love you" based on careful strategy, far more powerful is the love that falls for us just as we are. As we see through Abby, the problem with love gained by trying to be someone we are not is that whatever love we receive will never feel like it is actually for us. As she tells the man who ends up falling for her carefully crafted image instead of the qualities that actually make her who she is, "I couldn't show you any of that. Because who would love somebody like that? No one." But as the story reveals, that is not true. While each of us may have aspects of ourselves that are flawed, scary, boring, or even offensive, only when someone knows those pieces of us and still loves us can we know that they actually love who we are, not who we wish we could be, who we think we should be, or who we can only be fifty percent of the time. The Ugly Truth is an odd-couple romantic comedy marred by relentless predictability and the baffling overuse of naughty words. This is the latest example of that successful but often ugly hybrid: the cross between the romantic comedy and the fratboy flick. Heigl and Butler may be surprisingly nice here but they alone cannot save the film. The formulaic odd-couple dealings feature a relentless barrage of raunchy humor. It’s hard to believe this raunchy screenplay is attributed to three women, because this could send the Women’s Movement back eighty years. While the impossible proceedings may have been intended to have some effect as spicy and risqué, they only succeed in being lewdly annoying.

We all know that men and women don't always think alike, especially when it comes to romance and relationships. It seems that the divide between male and female perspectives couldn't get any wider. The question is: if men and women see romance so differently, how in the world do we ever manage to get on the same page? As directed by Robert Luketic, The Ugly Truth tries to answer that question, with implausible answers, revolving around mating monkeys, bikini-clad women wrestling in Jell-O and vibrating underwear.

This offensive relationship comedy follows a breathtakingly beautiful and exceptionally accomplished but romantically incompetent producer Abby Richter (Katherine Heigl) enrolls the help of the insensitive new star Mike Chadway (Gerard Butler), the host of the titular cable TV show -- a shock jock with the emotional maturity of a fifteen-year-old boy who just discovered dad’s secret cache of Playboy magazines. He proclaims the supposed ugly truth that all men are sex-consumed animals, and that a woman’s job is to play to that -- to ensnare, by artful talk, her gentlemanly neighbor Colin (Eric Winter), her perfect man, into a relationship. Mike is a crude chauvinist who proclaims that women need to accept this "ugly truth" if they're going to have any hope of a successful relationship. He immediately goes all My Fair Lady, transforming regular Abby into sultry, sexy, compliant Abby—complete with blond hair extensions, curve-hugging evening wear and instructions to laugh at everything Colin says.

While promising and amusingly entertaining at the get go, unfortunately, The Ugly Truth is really no more than a contrived collection of amusing situations that fail to add up to much of any substance of the matter. However, despite its weak development and unconvincing chemistry, through its story are still delivered several truths that are worth thinking about. Although both Abby and Mike begin the film with nearly opposite views of love and relationship, the film is one that essentially ends up acknowledging and disproving them both. If all a woman has to attract a man is five seconds in passing on a city street, physical appearances really are about the only hand she's got to play. If a woman manages to get a minute or two more to grab a man's attention, Mike's rules, however shallow, actually do make sense considering how easy it is to scare or bore a man away. As the story unfolds, however, and both Abby and Mike find themselves relating to each other and others beyond more than just an initial meeting, what they both discover is that when it comes to love and relationships, simply following a certain set of rules or seeking out a specific set of qualifications just isn't going to cut it.

Certainly, when the story begins, the "ugly truth" is that very often there are only a select few attributes which will cause a man to fall for a woman and that the ideal man who many of women search for simply doesn't exist. However, as the film unfolds, perhaps the even harder-to-swallow truth is that finding love is about a much more complex set of variables. As Abby reveals from the beginning and Mike dares to show a bit later on, while shortlists and specific qualities may drive their initial consideration of someone as a romantic interest, both of them ultimately desire a relationship with someone who has the ability to do more than just look good on paper. In time, we discover that both of them ultimately want to be someone who can be of value to another person for more than just one night. And as love based on a carefully-crafted image topples in the face of love based on full disclosure, we see that while it is not impossible get someone to say "I love you" based on careful strategy, far more powerful is the love that falls for us just as we are.

As we see through Abby, the problem with love gained by trying to be someone we are not is that whatever love we receive will never feel like it is actually for us. As she tells the man who ends up falling for her carefully crafted image instead of the qualities that actually make her who she is, "I couldn't show you any of that. Because who would love somebody like that? No one." But as the story reveals, that is not true. While each of us may have aspects of ourselves that are flawed, scary, boring, or even offensive, only when someone knows those pieces of us and still loves us can we know that they actually love who we are, not who we wish we could be, who we think we should be, or who we can only be fifty percent of the time.

The Ugly Truth is an odd-couple romantic comedy marred by relentless predictability and the baffling overuse of naughty words. This is the latest example of that successful but often ugly hybrid: the cross between the romantic comedy and the fratboy flick. Heigl and Butler may be surprisingly nice here but they alone cannot save the film. The formulaic odd-couple dealings feature a relentless barrage of raunchy humor. It’s hard to believe this raunchy screenplay is attributed to three women, because this could send the Women’s Movement back eighty years. While the impossible proceedings may have been intended to have some effect as spicy and risqué, they only succeed in being lewdly annoying.

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comment 3
ChristySweet date : 13/10/2009 time : 09.13
http://blog.nationmultimedia.com/ChristySweet

^

Agree .. Good writing.

comment 2
dryshrimp date : 11/10/2009 time : 11.27
http://blog.nationmultimedia.com/dryshrimp

Last night, my girlfriend asked me to enjoy the movie of her idol-Gerard Butler with her.
The plot is predictable.
The acting of the leading actors are fantastic.
The dialogue either of men and women side could make us laugh aloud.
The orgasm scene of Abby(Catharine) at the table from remote vibrator can't match the fake orgasm of Meg Ryan from When Harry Met Sally...
But I like the film despite its shallowness

comment 1
Plaadip date : 09/10/2009 time : 17.03

15 years boy? I think that he should have had his own secret boxes far earlier than the age.

I think your movie review is better than those of the snobs of Bangkok post, becasue you are more focusing on the explanation of the story line.(It help us to choose the movie we actually go and see.) But do you write this by yourself? or this is the advatising material of the movie coimpanies? Don't misunderstand me, I don't care it much, because your blogs are useful for me anyway. I ask this just from curiosity.

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