The title says it all – appearing to be a light-hearted, fast talking sex romp with two beautiful leads (Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler), according to the trailer at least, The Ugly Truth is in all honesty, really ugly. It’s mean spirited, crass and lowbrow and sets back relations between the sexes by centuries.
The non stop blowjob/ masturbation / vibrator jokes and base innuendos fail to gain comedic traction. The film rarely lifts itself out of the characters’ privates, to the extent that they attain honorary ‘character’ status.
Heigl plays a Sacramento television producer who is mortified to find that Butler’s local ‘relationship’ TV host is joining her show. It’s ‘He’s Just Not That into You” gone wild. She has standards after all, and some trash talking, woman-hating ‘expert’ tramples everything she holds as good TV and relationships for that matter.
He comes aboard, he’s a hit, he gives her relationship advice, and well you can guess the rest because this is formula all the way.
The assault of lowbrow inanity is cruel and unusual. Even at 101 minutes, the film’s far too long because it’s basically a handful of ‘jokes’ repeated to the point of annoyance. The writers have buried some truthiness in the deep bog of unenlightened desperation, a few tidbits about the way men and women operate. But the characters’ mutual aim is to get people into bed, first and foremost and any enlightenment is of the 25 cent variety.
For example, Butler’s blowhard relationship advisor has a jaundiced look at love because oh, I get it – he’s been dumped! And Heigl’s love life is non-existent because…. she’s a career girl! God forbid a woman should want to support herself.
What were these stars thinking? This is a project beneath their skill and presumably, taste level, an ill-advised entre into comedy that won’t help anyone’s careers. Butler has considerable charm and wit but here maybe too much testosterone for his own good. Heigl is a capable actress who makes the most of her part, but must have recognised early on that the role just wasn’t going to enhance her life or career.
The Ugly Truth just got the whole thing wrong. The characters are repellent and caricatured, the script heavy handed, offensive and dumb and the entire idea medieval.
35mm comedy
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