Shallow Hal

Nearly laugh-less, woefully underwritten and flaunting political incorrectness only to conclude with an insultingly insincere about-face, this romantic comedy stars impish, abrasive Jack Black as an obnoxious, superficial, beauty-obsessed pest hypnotized into seeing only a person's inner beauty. Next thing you know, he's in love with 300-pound Rosemary, who has such a sweet soul that in Hal's eyes she looks like a halo-lit Gwyneth Paltrow. Dependent on cheap sitcom gimmicks to power its plot, the story is pathetically predictable, while the whole inner-beauty device apparently applies to only three or four characters relevant to the plot. If it weren't for sunny Paltrow perfectly capturing Rosemary's cautious earnestness, intense insecurity and ingrained mistrust, this sloppily edited and hypocritically sanctimonious dud by the formerly funny Farrelly Brothers (There's Something About Mary) would be utterly insufferable. Not recommended. [Note: The DVD release offers a generous helping of extras, including a scene-specific, detailed commentary track from directors Bobby and Peter Farrelly; a pair of tepid "making of" featurettes with production crew and cast (a 15-minute HBO piece and a 22-minute Comedy Central preview); five deleted scenes with commentary (the jacket art on our pre-release copy claims 11, but the other six must be hidden if they exist); a 12-minute "Seeing Through the Layers" make-up featurette; and a three-minute "In the Deep End" shot breakdown featurette examining Rosemary's pool splash. "Big" Bottom line: a solid extras package for a so-so film.] (R. Blackwelder)