TO BE IN LOVE AND BE BLIND by Prospero Pulma Jr.

TO BE IN LOVE AND BE BLIND



The most glaring evidence that we are not born equal is in our faces. Some can win a beauty pageant on a very bad hair day and without makeup while others will never be crowned beauty queen in an honest-to-goodness-contest despite the best efforts of Vicky Belo, Ricky Reyes, and La Funeraria Paz. And if losing in beauty tilts is not disheartening enough, there is also the prospect of living and dying without getting a date, experience a torrid smooching, receiving chocolates, even if it’s just Chocnut or Big Bang, etc., because our market value in the mating, er, dating business largely depends on a very tangible aspect of our being – the face.

In Shallow Hal, Hal Larson (Jack Black) is one such guy who is guided only by his eyes in selecting a date like a butcher ignoring wise judgment and plain common sense in picking the livestock to be slaughtered. Even if he is not cover boy material himself, Hal basks in the company of hot babes and abhors the companionship of homely gals, until he meets Tony Robbins (Anthony Robbins) who alters his definition of beauty through hypnosis.

When Hal meets Rosemary Shanahan (Gwyneth Paltrow), the picky Lothario falls for the gorgeously blond Rosemary, blissfully unaware that his affection for her is genuine, that what he is seeing is Rosemary’s inner beauty concealed beneath thick layers of adipose. It is not only the grossly obese Rosemary whom he sees differently. People who fail everyone’s aesthetics criteria are good-looking to Hal’s eyes. It took his buddy, Mauricio (Jason Alexander), who does not only possess a vestigial tail but also share Hal’s plain looks and taste in women, to break Tony’s spell. But Hal is beyond redemption. It is Rosemary for him or no one at all!

For once, the Farrelly Brothers, the tandem who created the riotous Me, Myself, and Irene, made a film that provokes deep pondering rather than hysterical laughter. In Shallow Hal, they enlivened a serious issue with the usual jokes on the obese, the average Joes and plain Janes who would never be asked on a date, and just anybody who would never be spotted by modeling scouts or even ignored by the most desperate pimp. Before the film descended into the pits of comedy that the Brothers are known for, it is saved by the very happy ending of the Very Shallow Hal Larson marrying the Very Human and Lovely Rosemary Shanahan. Alas, Shallow Hal is just a vision of a romantic utopia, one that will drive the cosmetic surgeons, dermatologists, cosmetic firms, flower shops, and dating services out of business if it will become a reality.

-Prospero Pulma Jr.-