Guide Note

Shallow Hal is a romantic comedy about a shallow, superficial man who will only date beautiful women. While working one day, he runs into life coach, who hypnotizes him into seeing the inner beauty of women.

Fast Facts

1. Release date: November 2, 2001
2. Running time: 113 minutes
3. Rated: PG-13
4. Starring: Jack Black, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jason Alexander
5. Produced and directed by: The Farrelly Brothers]

Background

Shallow Hal was directed by the Farrelly brothers who are famous for their broad, politically incorrect comedies such as Dumb & Dumber, There's Something About Mary, and Me, Myself & Irene. At the time, the film was controversial for it's use of obesity as a source of comedy. In the years following the two main stars of the film would regret working on it. The film would go on to be a successful box office hit with a worldwide box office gross of $141,069,860 and would even make the Top 10 list of famed critic Richard Roeper for 2001.

Negative Quotes

Gwyneth Paltrow divides her films into two categories: those she does for love and those she does for money, or "shite" as she calls them, tentatively road-testing the British vernacular. Into the former category goes Sylvia, which, she says, "because it's a movie about a poet who killed herself, [didn't] have a big audience", and The Royal Tenenbaums. Into the latter goes Shallow Hal, the Farrelly brothers film, and "this terrible movie called View From the Top that Harvey Weinstein talked me into doing". - The Guardian, January 27, 2006

"I feel I kind of sold out a little bit when I did the movie Shallow Hal. "I had an opportunity to work with some dudes I thought were really funny, but it didn't turn out as I'd hoped, I wasn't proud of it, and I got paid a lot of money, so in retrospect it feels like a sell-out." - Jack Black, Contact Music.com, December 10, 2006

Cast

• Jack Black as Hal Larson
• Gwyneth Paltrow as Rosemary Shanahan
• Jason Alexander as Mauricio Wilson
• Joe Viterelli as Steve Shanahan
• Susan Ward as Jill
• Brooke Burns as Katrina
• Anthony Robbins as Himself
• Kyle Gass as Artie