Movies / Movie Reviews

The Ugly Truth

By Hervé St-Louis
July 26, 2009 - 21:30

It’s the end of July so all the major blockbusters are out of the way (G.I.Joe will be a loser). But guys still have to take their girlfriends to theatres as payback for having them tag along for Transformers a month ago. And then, there’s payback for that awful Watchmen film they suffered through way back in March. The DVD came out and just to stop their whining, men agree to take their women to see The Ugly Truth. On the surface, it seems a movie we can tolerate. They had jokes that reminded guys of The Hangover in the trailer so that was enough to sell it to guys. For women, there was a promise that there wouldn’t be any under the belt moment like in The Hangover, so it was an easy sell. Don’t get ahead of yourself, The Ugly Truth is a chick movie no matter how the producers or the trailer put it.



The Ugly Truth is about morning show producer Abby Richter who is forced to take on new anchor man and dating expert Mike Chadway. Chadway likes to tell it like it is and keeps dismissing Richter's romantic views. When Richter meets Mr. Right in the beautiful surgeon that moved in next to her condo, Chadway is determined to help her land the dazzling Doctor Colin. Will Chadway’s instruction help Richter get her doctor, or will he fall for the producer first.



So it’s Sunday and you have no real plans for the day. You’re not on vacation so you have to do something with your girlfriend to show you care, but without being too outlandish as you’re working tomorrow morning and you can’t quite arrive late for work on a Monday. That’s why Hollywood created the chick flick. The Ugly Truth is the chick flick women bring men with them instead of the type where they all go with other chicks and go drink some cocktail on some terrace just before, and end the night to a dessert joint eating pineapple cheesecake. No, Hollywood designed The Ugly Truth so your girlfriend would drag your sorry ass there whether you liked it or not. And there’s nothing worse than one of those chick flick that men are supposed to watch with women. It feels like cheating. You’re not the one cheating. The male actors like Gerard Butler who plays Chadway are. The premise of the film is that he lets women in on the secrets about guys, and if you don’t agree with his gospel, you’re gay or an idiot. That’s also why the producers of this film cast Butler for the role of the tough alpha male that gets the ugly truth about relationships. Remember, he’s the alpha guy who shouted "WE ARE SPARTANS" in 300. Yeah, it’s him. The 300’s guy. He’s alpha. He has credibility as a man’s man and therefore he cannot lie to guys.



And that’s the problem with this film. Here’s how a chick reviewer would describe it. “The tough guy, played by Butler, got caught in his own bag of tricks trying to change Richter, played by Katherine Heigl into a shallow version of herself that any guy would love. That Doctor Colin fell for her spunky self instead of her real self (bitchy, whinny, controlling – my notes, not the chick reviewer’s) is a proof of how shallow and how he did not deserve her. That Chadway fell for exactly the person he was trying to change shows even old dogs can learn new tricks. In the end this is a triumph for love.”



The very thing this movie was against, in its premise, how women love to castrate men emotionally, is how it played out in the end for the man who was denouncing the power castration of men to become what women desired. To tell the truth, he didn’t change much, and remained the alpha male until the end of the movie, but he was still drawn to this bitchy emasculator without knowing why. Now that’s shallow.

Rating: 8 /10

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12