The truth about "The Ugly Truth"

Romantic comedies are my favourite movie genre. I am one of those people who always crave for a ‘happily ever after’ ending. I enjoy comedies - which are certain to end well and what girl doesn't like a a good romantic story.:)
Hence, the "rom-com" (as it is popularly known) - a movie that is not so sweet that it nauseates you and not so mindless that it doesn’t leave an impression.

These movies make you connect with the characters, their quirks and enjoy their witty banter and the string of incidents they get entwined in which make them fall for each other. This genre has been firmly established by movies like “When Harry met Sally”, “Sleepless in Seattle”, “French Kiss”, “You’ve got mail”…yes, all starring America’s sweetheart, Meg Ryan who, poor thing, painted herself into a corner and was not successful in other types of roles…but that’s another story. Hugh Grant has also been hugely successful at this with hits like my favourite, “Notting Hill” among others (think: “Nine Months”, “Four Weddings and a Funeral”, “Love actually”). In “Notting Hill” he stars with Julia Roberts who is also no stranger to the rom-com having starred in “Pretty Woman”, “My Best Friend’s Wedding” and “Runaway Bride”. Sandra Bullock has taken a shot at it also with “While you were Sleeping” (more romance than comedy) and more recently, “the Proposal” (very Bollywood-ish).

What set me thinking about rom-coms is a movie I saw recently, called “The Ugly Truth” starring Gerard Butler and Katherine Heigl. Hollywood has churned out a steady stream of romantic comedies and Katherine Heigl has been a favoured choice after her hit “27 Dresses”. If “27 Dresses” was unimpressive, “The Ugly Truth” is the ugliest thing to besmirch the name of romantic comedies.
Katherine Heigl again reprises the role of a slightly neurotic, work-obsessed TV producer with no personal life. Gerard Butler fits the role of a boorish, chauvinist who stars on a successful show called ‘The Ugly Truth’ where he attacks every particle of decency that exists in relations between the sexes.

The movie is sleazy and has no development beyond the premise of a Man and Woman who are at loggerheads but who eventually fall in love. The Woman is shown to be desperate – unable to make a success of her show, a failure at relationships with men, a panicky moron who goes for a blind date armed with lists of conversation topics. She is a TV producer but acts like a confused teenager at every given opportunity. Enter: the Man – obnoxiously over-confident, ill-mannered and crude. He makes a living out of being a chauvinist and thrives on shocking people – as such, unable to string together a sentence without a reference to sex. He decides to help poor Woman by giving her advice that will help her snag the cute doctor she’s been eyeing. He tells her to act like the kind of woman he would go after – the kind of woman all men would want – a mindless, beautiful bimbo. By the time things get serious with the doctor, Woman has decided that she actually prefers Man and vice-versa. That’s it.

The Woman remains uni-dimensional and pathetic, the Man remains a swaggering adolescent. There is no sense that both reach a middle ground from the opposite fields that they once occupied. It’s just the story of two really stupid people. If the romance is that bad, their idea of humour is worse. The high point of comedy in the movie involves a pair of vibrating underwear. I rest my case.

Frankly, I was appalled. How can Hollywood make such stupid movies? How do these movies do well at the box-office? If I don’t see a good movie soon I am really going to believe that the death knell has been sounded for rom-coms. Last heard, Gerard Butler (who, by the way, I once thought was cute) was starring in “The Bounty Hunter” with Jennifer Aniston. She’s his ex-wife who is on the run and he plays a bounty-hunter given the task of tracking her down… which he does with glee. Aargh! The caveman cometh.