Movie Review

Star Campus Desk

In "The Ugly Truth," Katherine Heigl plays a single and somewhat prissy TV producer who's dismayed when a boorish, self-styled expert on the male psyche, played by Gerard Butler, becomes the star attraction of the morning talk show she puts together. Butler's Mike dispenses crude words of wisdom on what men want from women, urging them to get on the Stairmaster if they really want to meet a guy. All men care about is looks he says; a great personality is pretty low on the priority list. Heigl's super-organized Abby, on the other hand, keeps a checklist of attributes that her Mr. Right will undoubtedly possess -- he's sensitive, considerate and prefers cats to dogs -- and before she goes out with a guy, her assistant, Joy (Bree Turner), helps her out by running an intrusive background check on the poor sap.

“The Ugly Truth” continues a pretty ugly run of romantic comedies squandering the on-screen talent while perpetuating the image of career women as harpies with nice clothes and no dates. The gender of the screenwriters doesn't seem to matter (all three credited screenwriters here are women). Everyone belonging to the Writers Guild of America, apparently, has signed a secret pact to recycle the same shrill, Type-A, vaguely inhuman female lead who must learn to bend a little and appreciate the hunk in her midst, the one smitten with all her nutty foibles. If only the foibles were funny foibles. If only the characters seemed like earthlings.

Source: Rotten Tomatoes