The Ugly Truth

What's wrong with duck for dinner? Duck is delicious.

Is that true about tap and bottled water being basically the same? I'll take that one on trust.

And why can't we see Mike's congratulatory cake? I bet that box was empty. Boo.

But back to the review...

Abby (Heigl) is nothing if not prepared. She's capable. She's unflappable, at least until Butler's character, Mike, shows up. I don't know about you but, background check and casual heightism aside, I rather like the idea of a date who comes to dinner with a prepared list of conversational topics. Who likes awkward silences?

Abby's TV morning show is dropping in the ratings, so her boss decides to freshen it up by hiring a spicy TV personality, Mike Chadway, to present the Ugly Truth. He's going to be controversial on love and relationships, the battle of the sexes, telling it how it is, in his mind anyway, not how folks pretend it ought to be. Abby is horrified, but the results are in and the numbers don't lie. Abby's lovelife being a trainwreck, in a short time Mike is doling out advice to her too.

Mike's TV routine, first seen on some kind of cable channel (is that right, cable?) is crude to say the least. Very lowbrow. He remorselessly objectifies women, gleefully in fact. And how does he do that so convincingly? I'll tell you. It's because this movie, The Ugly Truth, was screenplayed by three women. Yes. True. Look it up. Roger Ebert was astonished that something so vulgar could come from writers on the distaff side, but I'm not. No-one is better at objectifying women than women themselves. And yup, you guessed it - that's the ugly truth.

But what about this movie as another entry in the rom-com genre?

Mike's right. "The truth is never pretty." Does this movie stick to its truth till the end? It ought to be a bitter end, given the obnoxious date-doctor's philosophy, but, well, things tend to end happy kissy in Romcom Land. And this is a standard issue Hollywood genre picture, with just the kind of locations, lighting, lensing, soft music, bouncy spirit, to make it only barely distinguishable from a host of others. What sets it apart? Heigl and Butler both have good energy, likeability, and Mike's crass, schoolboyish sense of humour, the kind the ladies both disapprove of and giggle/swoon over. Contradiction? In a man's world yes. In a woman's mind, call it multitasking.

In under half an hour Mike has had chicks wrestling in pudding on morning television. Abby then has a dream where she's demoted to being a nude weathergirl, dropping tacky innuendoes. Neither set piece is remotely convincing. Nor for that matter is the cat up the tree scene, also inside the first half hour. Once Mike/Butler starts dishing on his fellow men, then, well, you really know this stuff was written by women. It's testament to Butler's charm and Heigl's that they make this crass piffle funny and entertaining. And I disagree with Ebert about the restaurant underwear scene. I think Heigl's impromptu O-performance is more impressive than Meg Ryan's (from I'll Have What She's Having) for being fake real as opposed to fake fake. Curious to admit, but The Ugly Truth rises in status within the genre on account of its unusual, explicit vulgarity. It's not insipid, which makes a nice change. It's borderline gross, but not gross-out. It's rude-funny without being disgustingly filthy. It may be completely unbelievable that someone so icky would get a morning tv timeslot alongside news anchors, and likewise end up advising a beautiful woman on how to date moment-by-moment, but the payoffs outweigh the absurd setups.

Recommended, I'm ashamed to say.

I now believe that 2009 should be dubbed the year of the Romcom.

I was dragged to see the proposal by my girlfriend and thought it was hilarious. When she wanted to go and see The Ugly Truth I found myself putting up less of a fight this time. And I'm glad.

This film is HILARIOUS. I have to say I enjoyed almost every second from start to finish. It truly is designed for both men and women with fantastic views on romance, sex, attraction etc from both sides.

Acting is great, story is great and the chemistry between Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler works very well on screen.

To sum this film up I have to say watch it. Make your own mind up. But I bet you won't be disappointed and I bet you can't stop yourself from one agreeing with some of the points made and two laughing out loud.

The Ugly Truth is a entertaining romantic comedy about Abby Richter, a romantically challenged morning show producer whose search for Mr. Perfect has left her hopelessly single. She's in for a rude awakening when her bosses team her with Mike Chadway, a hardcore TV personality who promises to spill the ugly truth on what makes men and women tick. Although I think the movie is a little predictable and with some corny moments, it is also very enjoyable and funny. The cast is formed by Gerard Butler (300) and Katherine Heigl (27 Dresses) in the leading roles. Heigl is like in her previous movies very good, she is made for this type of movies and Butler is a real surprise, he did excellent in his very first romantic comedy. In conclusion, The Ugly Truth is a very enjoyable comedy for men and women.

Abby (Katherine Heigl) is an intelligent producer of a local morning show in Sacramento, California. She lives with her cat in a beautiful, lushly-gardened apartment complex but, the lovely lady longs to meet Mr. Right. One day, bad news arrives, twofold. One, since the show's ratings have slipped, the owners of the station have decided to go in a new direction. And, two, that direction would be south, Abby believes, for they have hired a brash, I-don't-mince-words talk show host, Mike (Gerard Butler) for a reprise of his late-night call-in program, The Ugly Truth. Mike will do small segments of advice, where he will counsel women on what a man "really wants". Since Abby has a past with this gentleman (she had recently called the late night show to tell Mike to take a hike) the young producer is mighty peeved that he has been hired for "her" program. Instant dislike reigns supreme. However, Mike does seem to know about affairs of the heart, even in his twisted fashion, and starts to give advice to Abby, on how to "catch" the very handsome young doctor, Colin (Eric Winter) who has just moved into her complex. two doors down. But, since this requires Abby and Mike to actually converse and confide in one another, could it be that Cupid's arrows could go astray? This is a very raucous and funny romcom but. it is definitely not in the Doris Day tradition. Therefore, if you are easily offended or prefer "sweet" tales of love, with just a touch of spice, this one may not be for you. That said, the cast is really delightful, for Heigl and Butler make a most attractive. sparring duo and Winter turns heads with his looks and smiles. The supporting cast, with Cheryl Hines and the rest, is quite nice, too. Also, the Sacramento setting is lovely while the costumes are terrific and the production values high. As for the direction, it is full of energy and mischief, as befits a script that is clever but rather risqué. All in all, if you love romcoms or any of the stars, you will probably embrace this one with gusto. For the truth is, it is very romantic at its core, and that's the best ingredient a comedic love tale can possess.

Romantic comedies, I've said it before and I'll say it again, we always have the hit and miss formula that comes with this genre. For the most part it's a miss, we RARELY have a funny or original romantic comedy. It's been over a year since we've had a good romantic comedy and this year seems to be pushing the horrible movies of this genre. For example, we had The Proposal that was released this year and it was just awful and so simple. The Ugly Truth seemed to be heading the same way when I first saw the trailer, but when I learned that it was Rated R, I decided to try to give it a chance. Honestly, this movie was a lot better than I had expected, it actually had some really great laughs and is a heck a lot better than The Proposal. But once again The Ugly Truth fell back into the ugly formula of clichés that are just annoying and there were quite a few things that I would have done differently with the story, I'll first explain the plot.

Abby, a TV producer, is coming home from another disastrous date one night, she happens to see a segment of a local television show, "The Ugly Truth," run by Mike Chadway, whose cynicism of relationships prompts Abby to call into the show to argue with him on-air. The next day, she discovers that the station is threatening to cancel her show because of its poor ratings, and the station owner has hired Mike to do a segment on her show to bring them back up. At first, the two have a rocky relationship; Abby thinks Mike is crass and disgusting while Mike finds Abby to be a control freak. However she meets the man of her dreams, a doctor named Colin living next to her, and Mike persuades her to follow his lead. She agrees to his helpful advice and if he can get her the man she wants, proving his theories on relationships, she will work happily with him, but if Mike fails, he agrees to quit; he successfully guides Abby to be exactly what Colin would want. But being a romantic comedy, Abby and Mike instead fall for each other as usual, you know how the story goes.

Now things I would've done different, if you don't want spoilers then don't read on: there is a child that comes into Mike's apartment, he and Mike get along great, I'm thinking that's his son; instead it's his nephew. I think this would have added substance to his character and made him more likable and would have had a better story on why he was so bitter on women, maybe like the mother left him or something. Second: I honestly would have had Abby chosen the doctor over Mike. Katherine and Gerad are great on screen together, but their chemistry for this film I felt was more of a great friendship than falling in love with each other. Her choosing Mike over the doctor was so typical, I would have had the doctor find out about what was going on and then take her back realizing that he still liked her very much and then Mike ends up with some slutty girl as usual happy with his shallow life, but still enjoying it. Third: no tired formulas, no girl best friend supporting everything the lead female does, no big kiss in front of an audience, no dramatic of finding out what a kiss meant. Fourth: why do we have gorgeous people claiming they have a hard time finding love or supposedly not having sex for a year? I'm not saying it's impossible, but I'm finding it hard to believe that girls who look like Katherine Heigl are having the hardest time finding love.

But there are some positives in the film, honestly I did have a good time watching this film over all, it was just the ending that killed the movie. But even the little rip off of When Harry Met Sally where Abby is wearing vibrating panties at a company dinner and someone saying what was in her food to have the same effect, it's an old joke but it never gets old. I loved that this was a Rated R rom-com because the reason MOST of these movies don't work are due to the fact that they're too family friendly and very much unrealistic. Not to say that The Ugly Truth is completely realistic, but more so than most films. We have some sick jokes but get a great laugh, Abby is going to a baseball game with Colin, her crush, and she accidentally spills her drink on his lap and starts rubbing his pants to clean them and the kiss cam lowers in on them with a bad angle looking like she's just having fun with his hot dog. Honestly I think most of the theater had a hard time catching their breath on that joke, no one could stop laughing. Katherine and Gerad do have great chemistry on screen, I just think it would have worked better as a friendship. So I would say this is better suited as a rental vs. a theater view. It's a lot better than I expected but had more potential as it falls back into the same old tired formula.

6/10