Taglines: True Love Is Worth The Weight!
Shallow Hal movie storyline. Hal Larson (Jack Black), a superficial man and his equally-shallow friend Mauricio Wilson (Jason Alexander) both share an interest in beautiful women, and try to act cool and hip when around them, but most women interpret their wild dance moves as obnoxious and want nothing to do with them.
At work, Hal’s co-workers accuse him of being shallow and caring about nothing but physical appearance, and ask him “when he’s gonna get it.” Hal wants to see women for their inner beauty, but his appreciation of physical beauty gets in the way. While going to work one day, by an unexpected twist of fate, Hal meets the famous American life coach Tony Robbins while stuck in an elevator, and has a talk with him about himself and Tony.
Robbins, understanding Hal’s situation, hypnotizes him into seeing people’s inner beauty, not their external selves. Subsequently he falls in love with Rosemary (Gwyneth Paltrow), a woman who appears to him to look slender and beautiful due to her kind, generous nature, but is, in actuality, morbidly obese. At first, she accuses him of being childish, because she thinks he’s pretending to date her, but later realises his feelings for her are genuine.
His concerned friend Mauricio is worried about Hal’s new taste in women, especially when he finds Hal dancing with a fat woman, thinking he’s gone crazy. Mauricio believes what Robbins did to him was deceitful and wrong, and he talks to Robbins. One night, while Hal is on a date, Mauricio catches him after having confronted Robbins and says the trigger phrase,”Shallow Hal wants a gal”, to break Hal’s hypnosis.
Discovering that his own sight had misled him, Hal, with Mauricio’s assistance, begins to avoid Rosemary, whom he initially fails to recognize. She becomes melancholic without him around. Still distraught, Hal decides to get to know his neighbor, Jill, and the two get together at a restaurant and have a nice chat. Rosemary, suspicious of Hal’s staying away, goes to the same restaurant where Hal and his friend are. Making assumptions about his relationship with Jill, she calls him a ‘psycho’ over the phone, which depresses Hal greatly.
Shallow Hal is a 2001 American romantic comedy film starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Jack Black about a shallow man who falls in love with an overweight woman. The motion picture was directed by the Farrelly brothers and filmed in and around Charlotte, North Carolina as well as Sterling and Princeton, Massachusetts at Wachusett Mountain.[citation needed] The supporting cast features Jason Alexander, Tony Robbins (as himself), and Laura Kightlinger.
The Farrelly Brothers admitted that this was a little bit different from some of their previous comedies, but as with all their movies they like for the audience to feel a connection with each of the characters. Shallow Hal was a more emotional movie and the producers spent a lot of time trying to ensure it would not be portrayed as a mere “fat joke” type of movie, but one that has a strong message associated with it.
Gwyneth Paltrow played both roles, slim and fat Rosemary (except for a couple of close-up shots of fat Rosemary below the neck, which were played by her body double Ivy Snitzer), and had to wear a specially designed 25 pound fatsuit and encapsulating prosthetic make-up. The prosthetic make-up effects and body suits for Rosemary, Rosemary’s mother, and all of the secondary characters were designed and created by Tony Gardner and his company Alterian, Inc.
In its opening weekend at the U.S. box office, Shallow Hal grossed $22.5 million, opening at #2 behind Monsters, Inc.. It grossed a total of $141.1 million, of which $70.7 million was in the United States.
Shallow Hal (2001)
Directed by: Peter Farrelly, Bobby Farrelly
Starring: Jimmy Badstibner, Jack Black, Jason Alexander, Gwyneth Paltrow, Sascha Knopf, Susan Ward, Brooke Burns, Zen Gesner, Laura Kightlinger, Kyle Gass, Nan Martin
Screenplay by: Sean Moynihan, Peter Farrelly, Bobby Farrelly
Production Design by: Sydney J. Bartholomew Jr.
Cinematography by: Sydney J. Bartholomew Jr.
Costume Design by: Pamela Withers, Jerry Constantine
Film Editing by: Christopher Greenbury
Set Decoration by: Scott Jacobson
Art Direction by: Arlan Jay Vetter
Makeup Department: Tony Gardner
Music by: Sheryl Crow
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for language and sexual content.
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox
Release Date: November 9, 2001
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