Uberfluff

So I recently saw The Ugly Truth.  If it doesn't ring a bell, that's probably because there's nothing particularly unique about it.  It's your basic summer romantic comedy with the oh-so-groundbreaking premise that men want sex and women want romance, though with a little Cyrano de Bergerac (or maybe it's Pygmalion) thrown in for good measure.  Gee, was it Cyrano or Professor Higgins who would recommend slowly eating a hot dog to get someone's attention?  Anyway, do the neurotic career woman and boorish man's man dislike each other from the get-go?  Will we learn that there's more to the guy than his macho act?  Will they overcome their conflict and realize that they're perfect for each other?  Don't make me slap you.  It's a formula movie for God's sake.


Still, I don't have an automatic problem with formulas if they're well-done.  Lord knows a well-done, well-written formula movie can be much more entertaining than some avant garde dreck that exists only to push the envelope.  (Avant garde in an effort to make a point can be good, but not if that point is, "Hey, look how avant garde we are!")  I wish I could say that The Ugly Truth was a well-done formula movie, but I'm afraid it stops at "competent."  The script feels like it was written by someone who really likes Judd Apatow films (or likes his box office receipts, anyway), but it never feels real.  Gerard Butler is charming and likeable as a walking issue of Maxim, even if we never buy that he's as shallow as he's initially supposed to appear.  And Katherine Heigl, the female lead, has a few moments of great physical comedy.  Though it's asking a bit much to have me believe that her character is beset by man troubles.  When you look like Katherine Heigl, there are always guys willing to put up with you, no matter how neurotic and annoying you may be.  I won't even touch the part where she's smart because she knows the names of a few pieces of classic literature--is it too much to ask to have screenwriters show us that their characters are intelligent through some method other than reciting their sophomore English Lit reading list?


Hmmmm.  And now it seems that I didn't like the movie.  Not true.  I enjoyed myself.  But I also forgot all about it within 2 hours of leaving the theater.  It's that kind of formula.


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