1/2

This review first appeared in The Colorado Springs Gazette. To read this review at its original source, click here.

The Ugly Truth is two movies for the price of one, but don’t get too excited. You’re not getting twice the entertainment, just twice as ripped off. For most of its running time, it’s actually a guy’s movie — something reflecting the sentiments of late, late cable programming and crude, sexually charged shows like SPIKE’s MANswers — until, near the end, it finally veers into the traditional chick flick territory the marketing has been trying to convince it was about all along.

Abby Richter (Katherine Heigl) runs her dates just like she runs the morning show where she is a producer — no nonsense and all business. However, what works in the control room does not work in the bedroom and if Mr. Perfect exists, Abby scared him off ages ago. Mike Chadway (Gerard Butler) is definitely not Mr. Perfect. A quasi-clone of Magnolia’s Frank T.J. Mackey (the decidedly blue Tom Cruise character), Mike is a foul-mouthed, misogynistic TV personality whose shtick is spilling the ugly truth about what makes men tick. (Hint: they like sex. A lot.)

When the ratings at Abby’s morning show begin going the way of Atlantis, the affiliate hires Mike to spice things up. Abby and Mike immediately clash, but Abby, desperate to get her doctor/neighbor’s attention, reluctantly turns to Mike for advice. A sort of vulgar Cyrano de Bergerac, Mike gives her the inside scoop on just what to do and say to snag her unsuspecting prey. But he may have done his job too well because his training blows up in his face when the green-eyed monster of jealously decides to pay him a visit.

Ladies, the feminist in me is offended for you. The Ugly Truth is mostly just plain ugly, a far harder R-rated film than the vast majority of the audience is going to be prepared for. Raunchier and more sexual (in word, not deed) than you might imagine, The Ugly Truth is the love child of a traditional romcom and a Judd Apatow movie, an offspring with all the genetic predictability of the former and none of the heart of the latter.

But perhaps my empathic transference is misplaced. The script was written by not one, but three women. And sadly, they get a lot of the “guy stuff” just right. Often we are that bad. But what separates men from monkeys is our ability to transcend our base instincts, to rise above our most primal desires. But The Ugly Truth certainly isn’t interested in any such civilized behavior. After all, where’s the humor in that?

The Ugly Truth plays the usual romcom cards: the man with more depth than you give him credit for; the independent woman whose businesslike exterior hides a vulnerable girl who just wants to be loved. In fact, I thought that the film was going to be about Mike repenting for his man-whore ways and finding the true meaning of love with Abby. (Oh don’t pretend I’ve spoiled it for you; did you really think she was going to end up with the doctor!?) But it isn’t. At the end of the film, both Mike and Abby are fiercely unaltered. They do not try to change each other, but rather accept each other for exactly who they are, warts and all. That’s not a bad message, to be sure, except for the part where Mike is a misogynistic pervert incapable of commitment. Or maybe he just plays one on TV.

It’s not that The Ugly Truth, directed by Robert Luketic (Legally Blonde), isn’t sporadically funny. But this mostly charmless sitcom of a film is built around the dynamism of leads who are unable to draw from the silly material anything approaching captivation. Heigl’s role pretty much consists of jumping around in place, and while I understand Butler’s desire to mix up his career (there are only so many bodies you can pump bullets into or cleave in half with a broad sword), this oversexed and underwhelming dub is not the answer.

In this battle of sexes, it’s the audience that gets caught in the crossfire.

© Copyright 2009 Brandon Fibbs. All rights reserved.