As I was watching this film with my wife, she turned to me and said, “Do you know what this is? This is a Rock Hudson/Doris Day movie in today’s world”. The fact is she was right. THE UGLY TRUTH is a romantic comedy not unlike those old films. Sadly they don’t make enough of them that are truly funny. Fortunately they have with this one.
Katherine Heigl plays Abby Richter, a stuffy TV morning news show producer who knows her job but is fighting a losing battle as ratings are plummeting. Her co-anchors are married and constantly bickering. Her love life consists of pre-arranged dates where she takes along a fact check sheet as well as topics for discussion. Worst of all if things don’t change the affiliates are going to pull the plug on the show.
At the same time a cable access regular Joe named Mike Chadway (Gerard Butler) is getting great viewer response being a total jerk when it comes to advice about how men should deal with women and how women should respond. His show, THE UGLY TRUTH tells it like it is, noting how men don’t care about deeper meanings they just want a woman who looks good and can fulfill their every fantasy. Think Jerry Springer meets Dr. Phil with little class.
Needless to say the station manager hires Mike in an attempt to garner better ratings and keep his job. Abby and Mike but heads from day one. Even more so since when she was watching his show the night before, she actually called in an attempt to set him straight. Unfortunately, she was doing all the things he said a desperate woman does proving him right.
Mike starts out with a small segment on the news program that is scripted and ready to go. Except he doesn’t work that way. Instead, he confronts the two co-anchors and by the time he finishes, their love life has been discussed on the air and they’ve made up. Score one for Mike.
Abby finds it all difficult to take. Going home that night, her cat escapes her apartment out a window and she climbs a tree to retrieve him. In the tree she finds herself looking into the window of the next apartment and the new neighbor, Colin (Eric Wright). When she falls from the tree and gets stuck, he comes to her rescue. With all of the attributes she looks for and described to Mike, she sets her sights on Colin.
A battle of wills ensues as Mike tells Abby that the way she handles things there is no way she can catch Colin. To prove his point he makes a bet: if she uses his techniques and catches Colin, he stays on the show with no more complaints from Abby. If she doesn’t, he’ll leave the show without a fight.
What follows is Mike’s attempt to change Abby into the woman (in his view) men want to date. He changes her clothes from semi-frumpy to sexy. He tells her how to talk, going so far as to give her an earplug to talk to her during her dates. Through the course of it all, Abby loses herself but gains Colin. Unfortunately, she garners the attention of Mike as well who sees not just the new persona but the woman beneath, something he thought didn’t exist.
The closer the duo come together both at work and as teacher and mentor, the closer they come together as a couple as well. From the start of the film you know some form of attraction is going to rear its head with these two. It’s the getting there that makes the movie fun to watch.
Romantic comedies rarely seem to work these days. Most come and go at the box office with little respect or attention. Even this film did that when it opened. Too bad because with the exception of a bit of vulgar language, this film really does offers laughs and romance in equal quantities. It does fulfill the need out there for this sort of film.
Heigl and Butler are stars on the rise, both having been in substantial hits but not quite to the point where they can make or break a film. This film should have helped them both over the hump as each turns in credible characters that you start out disliking a bit and then come to feel for as each new level of their personality unfolds.
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