THE UGLY TRUTH
CAROLINE: “The Ugly Truth” is a new rom com starring Katherine Heigl of “Grey’s Anatomy” and Gerard Butler. Sadly, it’s trying a little too hard to be funny and raunchy.
RYAN: It’s directed by Robert Luketic, who also directed, “Legally Blonde,” one of the best romantic comedies ever. “The Ugly Truth” doesn’t even come close to that level. My expectations may have been a little too high, especially because the of the R rating; I expected it to be dirty and funny. But instead, it almost seemed pandering.
CAROLINE: To me it felt stilted at the beginning. The script was awkward and it was supposed to be setting the tone of Katherine Heigl as this intense TV producer, but it all felt kind of forced. Even she was awkward, and I generally think of her as a good actress. She wasn’t very natural at first.
RYAN: Yeah, she was a bit of a caricature at the beginning; but other than that, she totally worked for me. I thought she was great, as was Gerard Butler. He’s looking incredibly hot, though he’s not nearly in the shape that he’s been in in the past. He’s not even shirtless in this movie.
CAROLINE: I wouldn’t want to see that. He’s got chipmunk cheeks. I did like him in this though; he played the guy’s guy very well. I just don’t find him very attractive.
RYAN: I totally do, but for some reason in this movie he was doing a strange Drew Barrymore-esque talking-out-of-the-side-of-his-mouth thing, and I was not feeling it. Maybe he had a stroke recently.
CAROLINE: [laughs’ I really wanted to love this movie, but sadly I only liked it a little bit. A few scenes were very cute, but then some parts were really derivative and annoying. It was just trying too hard to be raunchy and outrageous, and some of the sexual references just felt gratuitous and unfunny. I’m not offended by that kind of humor, but here it fell flat.
RYAN: It didn’t have the wit of a Judd Apatow movie. It felt more like, “We’re going for the R rating so let’s throw in this sexual reference.” And the dude who plays the hot guy who Katherine’s dating was more hot than he was a good actor. At first I thought he was gonna turn out to be a gay character; so when he wasn’t, I just never believed him.
CAROLINE: He’s way too pretty to play heterosexual. I thought he was fine, but this movie just missed the mark somehow. I like Katherine Heigl, but she can do better than this. I don’t even think she was the right choice for this role. Something about her performance was slightly off. She looks great though. She’s got a fabulous body.
RYAN: She looks like you, honey. Own it.
CAROLINE: Sadly, I’m way paler and I don’t have that body.
RYAN: The movie dragged a little for me. There was a montage or two where I could have been dozing. But I will say this – Gerard and Katherine had amazing chemistry, which is the most important thing for a movie of this genre. The scene in the elevator is fabulous.
CAROLINE: Loved that! But I hated the restaurant scene, which was so contrived and such a shamless rip-off of “When Harry Met Sally.”
— BOTTOM LINE —
CAROLINE: It’s a cute movie, but it’s not a must see in the theater. There are some funny moments which made me laugh out loud, but not as many as I would have liked. And the laughs weren’t as hearty as I would have liked either.
RYAN: I did like some of the romantic moments, but you could definitely wait to catch this one on cable. It’s a mediocre rom com. Not as bad as “Fool’s Gold” from last year, but certainly no “Something New.”
— RATING —
