Shallow Hal

A self-absorbed jackass (Jack Black) judges the women he hits on by their looks alone, until self-help guru Tony Robbins hypnotizes him to see only the beauty within. Soon he’s falling head-over-heels for a woman he thinks looks like Gwyneth Paltrow, but whom his equally shallow pal (Jason Alexander) thinks looks more like a hippopotamus. Brothers Bobby and Peter Farrelly (who co-wrote the script with Sean Moynihan) put their usual gross-out humor on a back burner in favor of a none-too-subtle sermonette about beauty being in the eye of the beholder. There’s no quarrelling with the theme, and the laughs are gentle and surprisingly tasteful. The Farrellys stretch the one-joke premise to the snapping point, but Black makes it, especially in his confusion and chagrin over his new-found depth.