The Ugly Truth

Movie Grade: C-

DVD Features Grade: C

Overall Grade: C

The transition that Gerard Butler has gone through in the pas few years is odd if nothing else. After playing Leonidas in 300, the title character in Beowulf, and The Phantom in The Phantom of the Opera Butler has now taken a turn for the worse. That’s right, romantic comedies. First it was the poorly titled P.S. I Love You, and now The Ugly Truth. It's a chore trying to take someone who once took pleasure in kicking Persians into a bottomless pit as the lead in a romance film. No matter what the public or my personal consensus is – THIS IS THE UGLY TRUTH!!!

When Butler steps out of his digitally enhanced, comic-book-esque universe, he is Mike Chadway the crude host of public access’s call-in show, The Ugly Truth. The show’s purpose is to bluntly explain the social dynamics of men and women; particularly in relationship. When Abby Richter (Katherine Heigl), the producer of a local news show, catches a glimpse of the show she is instantly offended. The next day she is outraged to find that Mike has been hired by her boss to help the show grasp an audience with the shocking nature of Mike’s segment. The two then make a wager that Mike can’t get Abby into a relationship with her neighbor. As Mike helps Abby along, the two slowly fall for each other in a turn of events that no one could see coming.

This generic romantic comedy is given the mild spin of Cyrano de Bergerac type themes. Rather than a man helping another man impress his love, Mike helps Abby grow closer to another man as he simultaneous develops feelings for her. This might have added a little bit of flavor to the otherwise bland film, that is if it hadn’t been done before in overwhelming quantities. It just wouldn’t fit the decor of either leads resumes to have a romance with a unique quality to it. Predictability isn’t a death sentence to a film: sometimes a formulaic structure can be comforting and easy to tolerate than something innovative. The killing strike to films like this is a lack of invention. Maybe it could be a clever script, or witty character development, but there are a number of things an obvious movie could do to keep itself alive: The Ugly Truth does little to nothing of the sort.

As surprising as it may sound, the deleted scenes were actually not bad. Keep in mind this is in proportion to the quality of the film, but there were actual moments that I thought could have furthered the plot. Things like Mike’s facial expressions right after Abby and her date leave dinner and the back and forth between the two of them during his segment rehearsal. The scene where Mike is playing video

games with his nephew was actually better than most points in the film since it was sentimental, and managed to work out a chuckle. There are also useless scenes like the extension of Abby’s first date in the film that just proved to be even more of an exercise in making the audience uncomfortable. As far as special features go, these are better than most. The same can’t be said for the two alternative endings: one of which is incredibly similar to the theatrical ending, and the other is far to cheesy.

Other standard features like a gag reel and a segment about how the cast feels about the subject of the film don’t do the DVD any services. Considering the film, it is no surprise that the features aren’t above average. Aside form the surprisingly tolerable deleted scenes, there aren’t many more surprises to be had with this one. Katherine Heigl can keep doing what she is doing, because she has built her career on sub-par romantic comedies, but Butler really has to step it up a notch. It doesn’t have to be another epic character like Leonidas or anything like that, but at least a film with something behind it.

Movie Grade: C-

DVD Features Grade: C

Overall Grade: C