It’s not often that the title of a film sums it up perfectly, in this case its spot on...this film U-G-L-Y and it ain’t got no alibi (in the words of 90s teen pop stars Daphne and Celeste). It has two pretty big names in it who in the past have given not quite impressive performances but certainly watchable ones.
Abby (Katherine Heigl) is a very successful television producer and Mike (Gerard Butler) is her worst nightmare, an egotistical, anti-feminist bloke who tells it like it is, well how he thinks it is. Her problem is that everyone loves him, especially her boss. Expected to work alongside one another to up their networks ratings a strange relationship forms and a bet is placed. Mike will teach/coach Abby to snare her man by being completely the opposite of who she is.
From an entertainment point of view the film hardly causes a chuckle, nothing is very original and from a moral point of view what kind of message is it to send that women are as shallow and ridiculous as (some) men perceive them to be? (Shame on you Sony Pictures.)
The main problem is that it tries too hard, take another recent rom-com, The Proposal – granted it had a different target audience and it may have been predictable from the opening credits but it had what a rom-com needs, two believable leads with comedic timing and chemistry, this is where The Ugly Truth looses out.
Interestingly it is written and executive produced by women, one of which is Heigl herself.
Credit where credits due Cheryl Hines and John Michael Higgins are uplifting and cringingly entertaining as the married anchors on the show.
The film is as flimsy and forgettable as Abby’s vibrating underwear.
Amy V Gathercole
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