The Ugly Truth

The Ugly Truth

Let me clear this up from the outset of the review: there is no review of this movie, regardless of what the title says. This would be a stupidly simpler task, considering there is little to gain from writing situations that are usually quite amusing, and there are days when one’s weakness and criticism needless to say gets dull, quite monotonous in some cases.

Now what I have in mind instead should be quite appealing to both you and me, which is a win-win if you ask me; instead of analyzing the film and then having to explain all the things that annoyed me about it (in brief: everything, including the last credits which were the most beautiful moments of my suffering), I’m going to go god bless American and begin with the bad points one by one and see what was so awful about this movie and how it could have been implemented in a good way.

1) The Ugly Truth almost certainly gets Katherine Heigl completely wrong: Heigl managed to turn her into a domestic abuser and almost ruined, who made the entire world fall in love with her in Knocked Up, and then turned her into an ambitious female star. There’s no reason she should be in actress prison all her life acting out roles where she plays a mother figure and takes care of impatient individuals like Abby Richter.

It’s as though the screenwriters have a psychological quandary with women or the tough of a complex towards them, however, all the people who had anything to do with the love story in the film are women, so this may mean that they were just too occupied with self-hatred which makes them incompetent mortals. Frankly speaking, I tend to strike on self-loathing in the majority of mass audiences now these days.

The crime here is also that Abby is made from the most tedious and most nauseating stereotypes that can be placed on the female characters of movies about Asia she is an ambitious achievement hunter, she has a pet with only a pet cat and no other friends, she has a lot of cats with lots of stuffed animals, and loneliness, but like several others, she has lost their minds over masculine power.

Heigl, as a woman and actress, is confident, self-respecting, and composed Lliana seems to understand the character well to deliver yet another joke in Knocked Up so, why not benefit from her strengths instead of making her look silly? Abby couldn’t be more substantively different than Alison Scott, and Heigl would have been a lucky break for The Ugly Truth just from letting her leverage her strengths. Eventually, this role could be taken up by any actress having minimum qualifications for a studio rom-com and there would not have been a major difference in the output while fewer blunders were made.

2) Katherine Heigl got it all wrong: To be sure, screenwriter Katherine Heigl’s relations with the director J. Judd Apatow and his more recent film The Ugly Truth are much more misguided now than they were, in utter perspective to the latter project, while in fact being fundamentally wrong. Quite rubs me the wrong way too close to know how I ever went to watch Kathy that basically argued for Nazi values.

For all Knocked Up is a pretty sexist movie, if not “so young” then why am I staring at a ‘Slut Queen’ like she did, acting the lead in a piece titled ‘The Ugly Truth’? What is truly shame sipping my coffee cup out Tungino can not speak 3D and lacks texture. Instead, this is a huge gender struggle which exists everywhere and is so amplified in the film that it simply drowns out any gray channels of interpretation that the film could potentially have.

To those who might dare to insult her and suggest that she appears in such a low-class film as ‘Knocked Up’ for career advancement because the role is a bit sexist how would she guts this film! It’s a common fact that Heigl has made constant criticism of Knocked Up for what she perceives as its sexist content. I personally do not have any of the strong emotions about it, but let’s agree: if someone doesn’t like the movie and actively criticizes it, he or she barely has a right to make a film that is known for many reasons, one of which is its stark contrast to Heigl’s self-proclaimed feminist views.

3) Why not let Gerard Butler be a weirdo? Although he had some other role in the movie, he thought that it was a lot of fun most particularly when playing as Mike Chadway, a sexist television personality who never makes it boring for Abby to try to evade the ethical problem which he poses to her as she tries to make her morning tv.

Chadway is a hopelessly vulgar and obnoxious figure, but he alone can single-handedly to revive the morbid stagnation of her morning show due to its awful ratings. So when it turns out that Mike appears merely to be a hot-headed girl-hater but in fact a good man, the whole plot of the movie loses its motivation because once it is gone and he’s more than just skims through the dark side, he is already a good candidate for the relationship for Abby.

But Mike could have remained as that when the character doesn’t have a love angle or potential as a partner for Abby. Moreover, the movie could have still maintained its consistency.

It is evident that Mike is a good man, or maybe the kind of person that I would date rather than a person like Abby who sees men as bland genderless shells. If anything, while Diplo isn’t the most attractive man, he is also seen as being ‘family material’ without losing his physical qualities simply to become Abby’s side at the end of the film. Or, on the other hand,

4) When it’s over, however, Mike and Abby must remain together. ‘Spoiler alert Mike and Abby, tiboutube stars get together in the last episode’ is what you could somehow expect to read in tabloids at the time, worse still, some sinister force appears not to allow people to see these tropes coming from afar. I am sure that everyone did not see the last episode and pictures posted with this headline.

Many of them have lived their entire lives blissfully unaware of the clichés that define films of this nature. If you’re one of those who think I’ve spoiled this picture for them, then I suggest they do not blame me but rather such senseless destruction a common sight in overhyped films. But I am repeating myself, one feels, too many times that looking at the ugly mug of Mike at the end of the picture is certainly something one does not wish to do.

All in all, while The Ugly Truth may seem dumb and horrible to some as there are dumb guys in most romantic comedies, it is simply a norm of the genre. Nothing remarkable really. Which means that it’s sub-standard for my tastes, and of course then we come around to the fact that the movie isn’t made for me. And it’s clear that it isn’t.

I’m not sure whether or not I’m quite entitled to hold such a position: slackening in case the movie does not seem pleasing to me or in fact any movie for that matter. While my disposition holds such a view, it is impossible for me not to be intrigued about how exactly the movie turns out and what the end result will actually be like.

And I can imagine they felt this was unjust, all that time and energy built up only to be given this swap. Because apart from its cheesy title like one of those trashy romance novels found on the stands of the local grocery shop, The Secret Sex Life of a Single Mom is much more demure than its subject matter warrants and probably possesses many of Grey’s issues only on a bigger scale.

Delaine Morris (Ashley Jones) lives a life predictable and mundane as most other women envisaged in many Lifetime movies. She is a mother of two and married to husband Robert (Scott Gibson), a stereotypical a-hole husband that has existed in around 75 percent of Lifetime films ever. After realizing that her husband has been unfaithful, Delaine herself embarks upon an affair with Graham (Jeff Roop), a friend she comes to fall for and ultimately leaves Robert.

However, not long after, she finds out that Graham is in a relationship with another woman and is heartbroken. But not long after that, Delaine starts entering the realm of online dating and she meets ‘The Duke’ (Alex Carter) who embarks on this journey of sexual empowerment that changes Delaine forever.

That final line encapsulates the worst of what is delivered in the Secret Sex Life of a Single Mom. If that is the case, then this ‘Lifetime’ rip off certainly needs to learn to pull back. For all the suggestiveness and promise the promo commercials suggested, the movie itself featured almost no sexual activity, rendering the mature rating almost ridiculous. It’s one thing to have limitations, especially on basic cable, but when the show’s selling vise is the edginess of the show only to end up featuring something less provocative than a Nickelback song, that’s quite disingenuous.

Delaine and “The Duke,” on the other hand, are the only characters to warrant any sort of attention from the audience. Actually, Ashley Jones does a fine job as Delaine and tries to persuade viewers that she has a real shot at becoming the hero of the story. Still, the way the plot develops, Delaine, in her turn, ends up looking like a naïve idiot with an insane amount of naivety.

In defense of Anastasia Steele, at least the first images of her as “The Young Virginal College Girl” were somewhat acceptable. Here, a middle aged Delaine with two young children, obeys The Duke for reasons that are not explained. One of them is to use a young man in his twenties as a ‘boy toy’ and abandon him when he starts wanting to take things seriously. Such decisions in particular make Delaine appear as a heartless idiot while The Duke ends up being a cruel man who manipulates women in the name of liberation.

Alex Carter is not to blame for the unappealing character of the Duke. In a couple of moments, Delaine’s creepy date shows exquisite charm that makes you almost forget why did Delaine succumb to those orders his orders were so creepy. It’s a pity but The Duke just does not convince at times and gets angry in very un-sexy manner. He sounds deceitful and cold when he should be sizzling desire and all joy.

For example, when Delaine attempts to define the limits to their relationship and says something like ‘You will not wear panties in my presence’, it is understandable how someone could be disgusted by the quite mundane tone and consider the movie as another low budget demo for Lifetime. Unfortunately, it is not this. The picture simply twists facts and claims The Dukes behavior as oh-so empowering. E.L James in fact does perpetuate a pattern where Grey is the dominator.

While Single Moms may not be a true “Tainted Love” movie adored by all lifetime movie buffs, it could have been more entertaining had it featured this plot. Rather, it is supposed to be an erotic thriller, only this time without appealing characters, wasted acting skill, and a badly established ‘man’ hero. This will definitely be great “so bad it’s funny” material for all of those nights when you’re with your most sardonic friends, but aside from that, this is one Lifetime movie that needs to go into the vault.

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