--- title: "Shallow Hal" year: 2001 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/shallow-hal" fi1m_score: 55 critics_score: 52 critics_reviews: 11 published: "2026-09-16T23:01:21.321619+00:00" updated: "2026-09-16T23:01:45.613635+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Shallow Hal (2001) Directed by Peter Farrelly, Bobby Farrelly · 1h 54m · MPA PG-13 · Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Romance **Fi1m score: 55** · Critics 52 from 11 reviews *In a sentence:* A film that lectures us about looking past the surface while waiting for the chair to break > The Farrellys mean every word of their sermon about inner beauty, and Jack Black and Gwyneth Paltrow nearly make you believe it. But the film cannot stop making the jokes it claims to be above, and one idea does not stretch to 114 minutes. ## Synopsis As a boy, Hal Larson (Jack Black) is told by his dying father, Reverend Larson (Bruce McGill), to settle for nothing less than a beautiful woman, and he has spent his adult life doing exactly that, failing nightly in nightclubs beside his equally shallow friend Mauricio Wilson (Jason Alexander). Stuck in a lift with the self-help speaker Tony Robbins (playing himself), Hal is hypnotised into seeing only inner beauty. He walks out and meets Rosemary Shanahan (Gwyneth Paltrow), who volunteers at a children’s hospital, and sees a slim, lovely woman. Everyone else sees a much larger one, and she is the daughter of Hal’s boss, Steve Shanahan (Joe Viterelli). Hal, none the wiser, sets out to court her. ## Review Peter and Bobby Farrelly made their name with a hair-gel joke, and *Shallow Hal* is their attempt to be kind. The script, written with Sean Moynihan, has one idea. A man who rates women by the inch is hypnotised into seeing only what people are like inside, and falls for a woman everyone else sees as enormous. It is a fable with a moral, and the brothers plainly mean it. They also still want the laughs the moral tells us are cheap, and in 114 minutes they never settle which of the two comes first. Jack Black plays Hal as a small, cheerful man who has no idea he is not a catch himself. The early nightclub scenes, with Jason Alexander’s Mauricio Wilson beside him, are the film at its most Farrelly: two men well out of their depth, sure they are being let down by the crowd. Then Tony Robbins, playing himself in a stuck lift, puts a hand on Hal’s head, and Black changes. When Hal first sees Rosemary Shanahan (Gwyneth Paltrow) he simply lights up, and Black never once plays it for a laugh. That delight is the engine of the film, and it runs a long way on his face alone. Paltrow has the harder job. She plays Rosemary as herself, which is how Hal sees her, and in a prosthetic suit for everyone else, and the Farrellys cut to the suit briefly and often, so that we are never allowed to forget the joke. What she does with the part is wait. Every compliment Hal pays her, she braces for the punchline, and the film’s best scenes are the ones where it fails to arrive. We laughed when Rosemary’s dive empties a swimming pool and puts a child in a tree, and we were not proud of it. A few minutes later she asks Hal, quietly, whether he is making fun of her, and the laugh went sour in our mouths. The film knows how to do that. It does it perhaps twice, and then goes back to the pool. The problem is Mauricio. Alexander is handed nearly every fat joke in the picture and does the sneering so that Hal does not have to, which lets the film make the jokes and disown them in the same breath. The camera holds on a restaurant chair giving way under Rosemary; then the script tells us off for looking. Watched with any attention, the moral does not survive that. Rene Kirby’s Walt, who gets about on his hands and is the one person here treated entirely without pity, shows what the film might have been had it trusted itself. It is plain to look at. Russell Carpenter lights the offices and flats of Sydney J. Bartholomew Jr.’s designs flat and bright, like a sitcom taped in the afternoon, and Christopher Greenbury and Steve R. Moore cut every gag to the same rhythm: set-up, reaction shot, wide. The one thoughtful piece of design is Pamela Withers’s costumes, which put both Rosemarys in the same clothes so that a single cut carries the whole idea. Adam Schlesinger and William Goodrum’s music is soft guitar pop that smooths over scenes a few of which wanted sharpening. Against *There’s Something About Mary* the laughs are perhaps a third as many; against the run of romantic comedies of its time it has more heart and much less nerve. The second half turns on the hypnosis and what becomes of it, which we will not describe, and it is the stretch where the film finds its feeling and loses its jokes almost entirely. By then we knew the one thing the film had to tell us and were waiting for it to finish. The reviews so far split almost exactly down the middle, and we understand both halves. If you like the Farrellys and want to see them try to be good, there is a decent hour in it, and Black and Paltrow are worth that hour. If you want them to be funny, the trailer has most of it. Watch it at home, where the 12 certificate and the soft edges make more sense, and where nobody sees you laugh at the pool. *Fi1m score 55, published 16 September 2026.* ## What the critics say The reviews split almost down the middle, and even the admirers agree the film is a departure for the Farrelly brothers. Where the praise gathers, it gathers on two things: the decision to play the inner-beauty premise straight rather than for cheap laughs, and the performances of Jack Black and Gwyneth Paltrow, who are singled out by critics on both sides of the divide. The New York Times and RogerEbert.com find the sincerity moving; several others settle for sweet, or at least good-natured. The spread is wide. Detractors object that the film asks the audience to laugh at fat jokes while scolding them for doing so, and that the tone lurches between the two. The Los Angeles Times calls it schizophrenic; The Independent goes further, arguing it upholds the prejudices it claims to debunk. Even the milder notices complain that it is not funny enough, with the central gag wearing thin early. The British reviews run noticeably cooler than the American. ### Reviews we read (11) - **The New York Times**, A.O. Scott (85/100, inferred): The Farrellys craft a tender fable that mocks and celebrates its subject at once, transforming fat jokes into a winning love story through absolute conviction. Scott praises the film's unabashed sincerity and the way it shames viewers of their own shallowness. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/09/movies/film-review-inner-beauty-counts-and-she-s-a-perfect-10.html) - **RogerEbert.com**, Roger Ebert (80/100, inferred): The Farrelly brothers deliver a surprisingly moving comedy that balances gross-out gags with genuine empathy for its characters. Ebert singles out the performances of Jack Black and Gwyneth Paltrow, along with the film's heartfelt message about inner beauty. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/shallow-hal-2001) - **Empire**, William Thomas (70/100, inferred): An improvement on the Farrellys' previous misfire, with a sweeter and more good-natured tone that celebrates inner beauty and girth, though it lacks big laughs and has a predictable ending. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/shallow-hal-review/) - **Slant Magazine** (70/100, inferred): The Farrelly brothers' film is sweet and sad, indicting sources of female shame with humanity while challenging viewers' gaze through Hal's altered perception of beauty. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/shallow-hal/) - **Time Out**, WH (60/100, inferred): The Farrellys add a sentimental twist to their usual schtick in a film that is not as funny as their best but fascinates through its foregrounded moral dialectic on fatness and hypocrisy. Black's self-satisfied lead performance and the sheer audacity of the gags stand out. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/shallow-hal) - **The AV Club**, Scott Tobias (C): The film awkwardly splits between puerile fat jokes and half-hearted sentiment, failing to balance its high concept with consistent humor or conviction. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/shallow-hal-1798192806) - **Los Angeles Times**, Kenneth Turan (30/100, inferred): The Farrelly brothers' attempt at sentimental uplift results in a broad, unsubtle film that is rarely amusing and rife with obesity jokes. Turan criticizes the lack of subtlety and the schizophrenic tone that undermines its message about inner beauty. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-nov-09-ca-1934-story.html) - **Screen Daily** (30/100, inferred): The Farrelly brothers deliver a disappointingly sentimental comedy about inner beauty that feels like a step backwards from their earlier gross-out work. It benefits from solid turns by Paltrow and Black but ultimately pushes obvious, sappy values. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/shallow-hal/407500.article) - **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw (**): The critic finds the Farrelly brothers' effort dull and a step down from their usual bad-taste style, calling it a sentimental misfire on its premise about inner beauty. He singles out the mishandled handling of sensitive topics like disfigurement and obesity for complaint. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2002/feb/01/culture.peterbradshaw1) - **The Independent**, Nicholas Barber (20/100, inferred): The Farrelly brothers attempt a more politically correct comedy about inner beauty but end up upholding the prejudices they claim to debunk, resulting in a tame and apologetic film reliant on fat jokes that fails to deliver laughs beyond the trailer. [Read](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/shallow-hal-training-day-nightshift-9142896.html) - **Eye for Film**, Angus Wolfe Murray (40/100, inferred): The critic finds the central joke about seeing inner beauty wears thin after half an hour, leaving little else to sustain the film. Jack Black and Gwyneth Paltrow are praised in their roles, but the Farrelly brothers' effort lacks the momentum of their earlier comedies. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/shallow-hal-film-review-by-angus-wolfe-murray) ## Details - **Director:** Peter Farrelly, Bobby Farrelly - **Director:** Peter Farrelly, Bobby Farrelly - **Screenplay:** Peter Farrelly, Bobby Farrelly, Sean Moynihan - **Cinematography:** Russell Carpenter - **Editor:** Christopher Greenbury, Steve R. Moore - **Music:** Adam Schlesinger, William Goodrum - **Production design:** Sydney J. Bartholomew Jr. - **Costume design:** Pamela Withers - **Producer:** Charles B. Wessler, Peter Farrelly, Bobby Farrelly - **Cast:** Jack Black as Hal Larson; Gwyneth Paltrow as Rosemary Shanahan; Jason Alexander as Mauricio Wilson; Joe Viterelli as Steve Shanahan; Rene Kirby as Walt; Bruce McGill as Reverend Larson; Tony Robbins as Tony Robbins; Susan Ward as Jill - **Runtime:** 1h 54m - **Certificate (MPA):** PG-13 - **Release (the US):** 1 November 2001 - **Genres:** Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Romance - **Budget:** $40 million - **Box office:** $141 million ## Where to watch in the US - Amazon Prime Video: rent $3.99, hd - Apple TV: rent $4.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $14.99, hd - Apple TV: buy $14.99, hd *Checked 2026-09-16.* Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, IE, IL, IS, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PL, PT, RS, SE, SG, SI, UA, US, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Marty* (1955): An ordinary-looking couple and a love story with no gimmick and no apology. - *Groundhog Day* (1993), Fi1m 88: Another shallow man improved by magic, with the jokes and the lesson in balance. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/groundhog-day.md) - *Muriel's Wedding* (1994), Fi1m 81: The woman everyone laughs at gets the film to herself, and earns it. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/muriels-wedding.md) - *Cyrano de Bergerac* (1990), Fi1m 88: Depardieu on what a face costs a lover, in rhyme and without a fat suit. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/cyrano-de-bergerac.md) - *Stuck on You* (2003): The Farrellys try kindness again, this time with the sweetness and the gags agreeing. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/shallow-hal