The battle of the sexes heats up in Columbia Pictures comedy The Ugly Truth. Abby Richter (Katherine Heigl) is a romantically challenged morning show producer whose search for Mr. Perfect has left her hopelessly single. She’s in for a rude awakening when her bosses team her with Mike Chadway (Gerard Butler), a hardcore TV personality who promises to spill the ugly truth on what makes men and women tick.
This past Tuesday, July 21st, I got to see an advanced screening of this romantic comedy. I will be right up front and honest with you, dear EM readers, I am not the kinda girl who regularly goes to chick flicks. They just aren’t my kind of movie. I like car chases, explosions and monsters in my movies. But guess what, I liked The Ugly Truth! Read on to find out why!
The Ugly Truth, stars Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler as the standard “opposites are going to attract” kind of couple that is par for the course in almost any kind of romantic comedy movie. What makes The Ugly Truth stand out for this movie goer was the fact that the plot was a clever and amusing twist on the “My Fair Lady” concept. Only instead of a cultured professor type gentleman turning a charwoman into a lady, The Ugly Truth presents the audience with the seemingly crass and sexually outspoken Mike Chadway turning the oh so too tightly woven “Silk Purse” Abby Richter into a “flashy handbag” designed to attract men like a magnet.
Writers Nicole Eastman, Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith create characters that, on the surface seem stereotypical, but are saved from that shallowness by having very human and realistic quirks and issues. Mike Chadway is a macho male without being cardboard, Abby is neurotic and high strung female without being annoying. Both main characters have endearing qualities and that, coupled with snappy dialog that doesn’t go overboard with the “Moonlighting” type banter, keeps the characters fresh and likeable.
The only real issue I had with The Ugly Truth is that, for all its great characterizations and strongly written dialog, there was for me as a viewer very little real chemistry between Heigl and Butler. They just didn’t have enough ‘sizzle” onscreen for me to totally buy into them falling in love. I was more impressed with the on screen chemistry that I saw between Katherine Heigl and Eric Winter who plays Colin, Abby’s sexy new neighbor whom Chadway teaches her how to woo based on his expertise on how men see women. I admit, I wanted Colin and Abby to be “the couple”.
That aside, The Ugly Truth is really an adorable and likeable romantic comedy that I believe both men and women will enjoy seeing and getting a laugh out of. And getting the audience to laugh was the one thing that The Ugly Truth excelled in doing!
Grade = B-
Reviewed by M R Reed.
"The Ugly Truth" is a romantic comedy about a woman tv producer at a local Sacremento station who is forced to include a chauvinist on her morning show to improve the ratings. Familiar, predictable, and for mature audience.
GRADE = "B"