This is very cliched- but, is beauty only skin deep? Does physical appearance play such a huge role in finding love? Do ‘fat’ or ‘ugly’ people not find love?
What this movie, folks: Shallow Hal, and you will find out.
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The story is about a shallow guy called Hal, who is obsessed with physical beauty, and due to not being very good-looking himself, does not quite hit it off with good looking women whom he is attracted to. A chance encounter with a life coach leaves him ‘hynotised’ so he can only see INNER beauty in a person. Hal suddenly finds that the women he thinks look gorgeous, also show interest in him! He falls in love with a beautiful and intelligent woman, who is also kind and intelligent and humorous. Only to realise, much later, that this girl, whom he sees as ‘slim and sexy’ is actually massively obese!
Now, I was really curious to see how this movie would end. To me, the perfect ending was not in Hal leaving this girl because she was not ‘really’ beautiful. Nor in the girl ditching him because he was ‘shallow’. And certainly not a dramatic climax of ‘ugly duckling turning into a beautiful swan’. No. That only happens in fairy tales. And fairy tales, as we know, are only tales.
Much as I do not want to spoil the fun and reveal the ‘The End‘ part, I am not sure how many of you have already seen the movie, or will try to watch it. So I’ll just tell you!!!
The movie ends with Hal realising that he loves his girlfriend, Just the Way she Was! When he finally sees her (not in his hypnotical state), he says ‘Oh My God!!’ and then follows it with a ‘You’re beautiful!’ It was touching to see Hal realises that what makes people beautiful or ugly, is the inner beauty and not what is skin deep.
How I wish we could all be this way.
How I wish we would appreciate people for what they do rather than how they appear!!
How lovely would it be, if the entire world worked on this simple principle of ‘seeing inner beauty’.
How easy life would be if we could just see people for what they truly are, rather than the person they project themselves to be, while their true nature lies hidden beneath layers of branded clothes!!
And equally, how awesome if we could the true nature of people, and realise what pieces of shite they are, behind all those sugar-coated words!
What are your thoughts on this? Care to share? 🙂
Writer-z-block 
22 replies on “Fat chance of love”
How true..Beauty is not skin deep. If only I realised the depth of that.. I’d stop obsessing over my undone eyebrows..
ROFL!!! No no, go do your eyebrows. I’ve never ever done it till now, but I do plan to sometime soon, just for a change!!
u’ve never done your eyebrows, pal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! REALLY!?!?!?! then why do i endure pain every two weeks!
Hee hee, my mum never encouraged it, and I am yet to get out of that mold!!! I’ve been planning to do it for the last couple of weeks though, Roopie, and perhaps will actually enter a beauty parlour sometime soon, in a desperate attempt to beautify myself 😉
We have conditioned ourselves to judge everything at first glance. Unfortunately that judging can happen only by looks. Overtime as we get to know the person we change our opinion and that is where looks stop to matter and the see the beauty or even the ugliness of the person within.
I agree, Nam. The difficult part is when we realise that someone who looks great is actually quite a piece of trash!
he says ‘Oh My God!!’ and then follows it with a ‘You’re beautiful!’ – Woww thatz so nice 🙂
Yeah Swar, I loved that part too.
How easy life would be if we could just see people for what they truly are, rather than the person they project themselves to be, while their true nature lies hidden beneath layers of branded clothes!!
U have summed it up so aptly… wish life were that easy and straightjacketed…but its not… sigh…
Thanks Ash! 🙂
It’s never this easy is it?! I wish it was… but, it isn’t usually and those who do find true love despite their physical imperfections are truly a precious and happy lot.
You’ve put that SO Well, Pix. Though, I’m not too sure, because I’ve seen lots of shallow people who have their partners and in-laws dancing to their tunes, simply because they look pretty or handsome, as the case may be!!!
The movie is really awesome! and I did love the ending…
Me too, me too 🙂
Nice review, I would love to catch this movie! You are so right that we all make this mistake of not looking deep enough.
I’m sure you will enjoy the movie, Lakshmi
I have seen the movie and it brilliantly tackles the value of inner beauty as against being skin deep 😛
Till the concept of first impression and judging others in a look exists unfortunately we’ll miss on giving due credit to people’s inner beauty.
Loved the way you brought out your thoughts and co-related it with the movie giving it a wonderful thought provoking review 😀 😀
Thanks, CB. I definitely think looks play a great role in any relationship, but the problem arises when ONLY looks play a role!
I remember watching this movie a long time back and really liked the concept of the movie. Not many movies (esp the ones in rom-com genre) has a message – usually they are time-pass masala – but this one was different, a feel good movie with a message. Now, how can you beat that?
That’s right, Akay. I love romcoms as they are just sweet time-pass, but this was really good.
I wish I could be idealistic here…but I just can’t. Unfortunately looks do play quite a significant role in the vetting process for who our partners will be. And though sex obviously isn’t everything in a relationship, I would think it plays a pretty huge role.
Oh, I completely agree with you, Bhagwad. Looks are very important. The problem arises only when we begin to believe that ONLY looks are important, and when we ridicule people who do not look good only on the basis of the looks.
Having said that, it’s true that beauty varies from person to person. I remember being madly attracted to certain girls in college and my friends would look at me in disbelief. But my point is that I had to find them attractive in the first place.
Hmmmm… more food for thought…. It just shows how genuine you are, as a person. Quite unlike ‘Shallow Hal’/em>
Sucks doesn’t it? But the world isn’t a fair place and life is never simple. Damn, it can be so unfair…
Phew……
Can’t lay claim to being much holier than thou 😀 It seems I have a somewhat strange taste in women – to start off with, short hair really does it for me. Something that my friends in college couldn’t understand. But it was still looks unfortunately. At least for first impressions.
Lol 🙂 Glad to know you are different anyway, bhagwad!
Once you get to know someone the looks factor can decrease a lot in importance but I don’t think I could do away with it completely.
I agree with you. Looks do matter, but are not the only thing that matter 🙂
I’ve seen the movie and liked it. At the first glance, looks play a role…but it’s not the only thing that carries a relationship forward. The inner beauty of the person is what defines the sterngth of any relationship in the long run, I feel.
Amen to that, Tix. Looks do matter, no doubts about that. But people – both men AND women – need to go beyond that!
I’ve seen this movie, Pals..I remember laughing my heart out and crying as much. I loved the movie! you’re so right, if only we’d give more importance to the inner beauty, life would be so much more beautiful!
Me too, Deeps!
“And equally, how awesome if we could the true nature of people, and realise what pieces of shite they are, behind all those sugar-coated words!” LOL..so agree with you there 😀
LOL!! Really!!!
Haven’t seen it, Pals, but would love to, after reading this.
Yes, things would be so different if looks were not the only or the most important factor. Then again, I think, for most of us, after probably the first meeting, don’t we look beyond looks? I mean, how many of us decide only on the basis of looks? Or am I being extra optimistic here 🙂
He he, I think looks play a great role. Methinks we manage to surpass the looks factor once we get to know the person. But what of all the people we simply dismiss because they don’t look appealing enough. We never get to know them at all.
So true. Very honestly though, i think this “not looking into the depths” is a mistake women make more than men 😀 😀 😀 😀 I have seen and known just toooooo many women who’ve done that 😀
But yes, if only…
I guess we are all guilty of it. But don’t you think, in a very typical traditional Indian setting, its the male who gets to choose? Therefore, by default, they make the mistake more? 😉
i havent seen it but sounds really intersting must see it
It was good, Mon. Wouldn’t call it a fantastic or great movie, but it was a romcom with a nice message 🙂
Loved the story line pal..will try to watch this over this weekend…
Hope u watch and enjoy ANu!
I think you will trust me when I say- I agree.. prejudging is not good.. not only based on looks but based on anything – religion, culture, gender, sexual orientation,…. and appearance too..
Oh yes I definitely trust you when you say that!
But (has to be a but since we dont have black n white world.. we have grey world.. ) playing devil’s advocate:
1) world have 6billion people and atleast 70% of those would have ‘good inner beauty’ and we only have limited life/time and if we want to get know people’s inner beauty then you have select the few for inner beauty exchange(ok i cant find other good english word for this..;)) so people operate under ‘method of elimination’ (like GMAT for MBAs). it alone doesn’t get you in much further but ‘potentially’ its can get you out. VERY INTERESTING PROPOSITION, YUVA. HAVE TO ADMIRE YOU FOR THIS!!! U MAKE A GREAT DEVIL…. er I mean, devil’s advocate 😉
2) beauty & ugly is very subjective term influenced by culture, society, history, our beliefs, faith, (level of alcohol in the blood)), stage of life,.. Absolutely, Yuva. Its like our culture where ‘fair’ means ‘beautiful’. We don’t even bother about the person’s features or nature. If you are fair, you are several notches above the darker ones!!! How blind can we be!!!
3) all species dna is design to make quick(gut instinct)judgement about other for surival. so blame evolution/design.. Agreed!!!
4) no one will trade their mom for a beautiful mom. so obviosuly people dont value good looks as much as we think they do… (or may be thatz my naive belief) Definitely, Yuva!! But you might want to trade your Gf for a prettier one 😉
hope I make sense..!
(is there anyway these comment box can have spell checks;)..pls ignore the typos..;))
Er, fair enough, actually. I think its Ok as long as one does not think looks are THE ONLY thing that matter. Obviously everybody wants to be with a good looking person. Male or female, we all think alike. The problem arises when we allow ‘looks’ to give that Halo effect. All the same, we also tend to dismiss a person based on his/her poor looks, which is equally bad.
… so “we dont trade moms.. but.. might want to trade your Gf for a prettier one” which only means = mom is doing good job and Gf not so much.. 😉
LOL! Or that there is a scarcity of mums, but not of Gfs 😉
and by the way— I saw the movie ages ago and i think i liked it bez gwyneth paltrow is so good(looking..;))
He he, appove nenachen!!!
yes I have seen it and its a lovely movie. I often quote this – “Remember that the most beautiful things in the world are the most useless: peacocks and lilies, for instance. – John Ruskin”
my case is the opposite. i think everyone is looking at the person inside me when they tell me that i am pretty lol … cuz it’s easier for me to convince myself that the person inside is pretty …. believing that i look pretty is something i cannot digest. i don’t believe it at all.
That’s a rather nice way of taking a compliment, Roopie. Though, in your case I’d have to say people would mean BOTH inner and outer beauty when they call you pretty 🙂