{"id":7406,"date":"2010-01-25T18:59:51","date_gmt":"2010-01-25T10:59:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/?p=7406"},"modified":"2018-03-14T11:15:35","modified_gmt":"2018-03-14T03:15:35","slug":"the-ugly-truth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/2010\/01\/25\/the-ugly-truth\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ugly Truth"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"blog-ugly-01\" The Ugly Truth<\/a><\/em> (2009) \u2013 on rental. If there\u2019s any one theme in romantic comedies that\u2019s getting ruthlessly farmed for material, it\u2019s the theme of how men and women view relationships differently. The Ugly Truth<\/em> \u2013 starring blonde bombshell Katherine \u2018Izzie\u2019 Heigl and Gerald \u2018This is SPAARRRTTAA!!!\u2019 Butler \u2013 is another recent film that\u2019s based on that theme, but unfortunately is not only so by-the-numbers but also\u00a0 that I felt the two leads just aren\u2019t right for their respective roles.<\/p>\n

The title of the film comes off a TV show that Mike Chadway (Butler) hosts, and it purports to tell only the truth of what men really want in relationships: and, according to this TV show, it\u2019s just one thing: sex. Heigl plays Abby Richter, a slightly prudish and with an OCD producer of a morning TV show that\u2019s struggling on the chart ratings. Mike\u2019s \u201cThe Ugly Truth\u201d morning show is brought in as a segment into Abby\u2019s show against her wishes, which sets up the two for obligatory scenes of friction and disgust, before the two realize that they\u2019re really \u201cmeant for each other\u201d.<\/p>\n

Given the film\u2019s theme, there\u2019s some degree of crassness of both the verbal and also physical type though it doesn\u2019t quite go down to the toilet humor level of say My Best Friend\u2019s Girl<\/a><\/em>. Some of it doesn\u2019t work \u2013 like one scene where Abby hangs precariously upside down from a tree branch with her head facing squarely and inches away from her naked neighbor\u2019s crotch \u2013 but others do, as in a certain scene involving Abby and a certain, well, battery operated sex toy that falls into the hands of a curious 8 year old who has no idea what it is.<\/p>\n

The troubling thing is that both leads seemed uncomfortable with not only the type of scenes they are in but also the lines they have to say \u2013 almost like while their physical bodies were going through the motions, their minds were subconsciously resisting the characters\u2019 dialog lines. Heigl just doesn\u2019t do physical comedy very well, and the early scene which supposedly demonstrates her uptight complex and her compulsion to do complete character analyses of her dates doesn\u2019t fly. I can imagine an actress like Reese Witherspoon with a naturally frenetic energy pulling it off, but not Heigl. It felt forced.<\/p>\n

And Butler was equally an ill-fit for the foul-mouth Chadway. It\u2019s not that I mind a womanizing character that has no issues with diving into a tub with bikini clad bimbos on a morning TV show to prove a point or who insists that the way to win a man doesn\u2019t involve 10 steps: it only involves a certain oral activity. It\u2019s that the role calls for a type of actor other than Butler. The latter’s natural demeanor strikes me of a sensible and serious-minded man with maybe a slight tinge of whacko personality \u2013 but not as this sort of Neanderthal character, his more responsible relationship with his nephew in the film not withstanding.<\/p>\n

Ironically, neither of the two are new to romantic-comedies or dramas. Heigl we\u2019ve seen in a couple already: 27 Dresses<\/em> (not too bad but James Marsden was awful) and before that Knocked Up<\/em> which she starred opposite Seth Rogen,\u00a0 a complex film that I really liked about unintended pregnancies. Gerald Butler is easily recognizable even without his bushy King Leonidas beard as the guy who kicked that other guy down the pit in 300<\/a> <\/em>yelling something about \u2018Sparta\u2019, and he starred in PS I Love You<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The funniest thing is that Ling kept turning to me throughout the show asking \u201cDear, is that what men really think\u2026?!!?\u201d, and each time I replied \u201cHARLOW, it\u2019s just a movie lah.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019m reminded of another show that was based off a similar premise, but whose character-to-character engagement worked far better, and also that the two leads fitted their opposing roles. That film was Someone Like You<\/a><\/em> from 2001, starring Ashley Judd and Hugh Jackman, and a film that I\u2019d coincidentally just re-watched last month. If you\u2019re interested to see a romantic-comedy that discusses in what ways are men different from women when it comes to relationships, that also has a more believable transition from antagonism to eventual partnering, give The Ugly Truth<\/em> a miss and watch that instead.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Ugly Truth (2009) \u2013 on rental. If there\u2019s any one theme in romantic comedies that\u2019s getting ruthlessly farmed for material, it\u2019s the theme of how men and women view relationships differently. The Ugly Truth \u2013 starring blonde bombshell Katherine<\/p>\n

Read More The Ugly Truth<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-at-home","category-entertainment","wpcat-6-id","wpcat-10-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7406\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}