Romantic comedies get a lot of bad press. They’re easy to shred after all, occupying a weird parallel universe where everything works out all right in the end - girls always get their guys and good things always happen to good people.
The Ugly Truth doesn’t do anything to break the mould - it’s a fully paid-up member of the traditional romcom club.
Frankly, anyone expecting lurid social commentary or the next Citizen Kane is watching the wrong movie.
The Ugly Truth does exactly what it says on the tin and if you’re up for a bit of a giggle on a Saturday night, there are worse things you could see (the recent spate of British horrors comes to mind).
Katherine Heigl plays Abby, an anally retentive control freak of a TV producer, effortlessly in command of her professional life but woefully clueless when it comes to affairs of the heart.
To her all men must meet a set of checklist criteria and surprise surprise, every man she comes near would rather go and file his tax return than spend an evening with her.
Gerard 'This is Sparta' Butler is Mike Chadway, an arrogant loudmouth and chauvinist who fronts a cable access show called The Ugly Truth in which he lays down the law about how men and women really are.
Apparently, men are more attracted to boobs than brains, at least at first – who would have thought it?
With her show’s ratings plummeting, guess who turns up as the presenter for her TV show? Got it in one.
After some initial animosity will she realise the error of her ways and warm to his laddish impulses?
Of course she will.
Will he turn out to be less of a grunting neanderthal than he first appears? Stake your life on it.
But in spite of more genre clichés than you can shake a stick at, The Ugly Truth sticks to its guns and remembers that romantic comedies are supposed to be two things – romantic and funny.
And despite the obviousness of its set-ups, it is funny, consistently so for 90 minutes, and actually surprisingly romantic.
Gerard Butler is having fun, stalking around the camera, spouting 'manly' observations like Doctor Ruth crossed with a mountain gorilla.
Katherine Heigl is extremely likable in spite of her character’s initial bone-headed misunderstanding of human interaction, and both characters share a good deal of chemistry on screen.
You could nitpick endless holes in the plot or the contrivances or the unlikelihood of any of this happening but that would be missing the point.
If you want a feel-good film with a good looking cast just roll with the genre conventions, you’ll walk out with a smile on your face.
Watch a preview of The Ugly Truth:
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