My Review: The Ugly Truth (5/10)

(5/10) Australian director, Robert Luketic, brings us this year`s romcom: The Ugly Truth, and the truth is that it`s ugly. Luketic directed 21 last year, which was a film I really enjoyed althouh he is best known for directing Legally Blonde (Reese Witherspoon`s breakout movie) and Win a Date With Ted Hamilton. I have to admit all three of those movies were better than this one. The Ugly Truth is full of cliches, stereotypes, and cheesy dialogues. From the moment the movie begins you already know how it`s going to end and you can guess pretty much everything that is going to happen throughout the entire movie. The language is a lot dirtier from most other romantic comedies, although that is about the only difference I could find because most of these movies are pretty much the same. Perhaps watching 500 Days of Summer a few weeks before The Ugly truth may have influenced me because that movie was so original and fresh while this movie was just so packed with cliches and typical stereotypes. The characters in 500 Days of Summer were more complex, while in this one they`re just plain and vague. Every stereotype of a man (womanizer, drinker, unwilling to commit) and every steretoype of a woman (overcontrolling, dreaming of Mr. Right, and emotional) are all put into this movie through the two main characters leaving little room for more complex and intriguing one`s.

Gerard Butler and Katherine Heigl are both great actors. Butler is known best for his leading role in 300, but he has also made some romantic movies in the past such as P.S. I Love You (a lot better than this one), while Heigl is known for her role in the TV series Grey`s Anatomy, but she has also done some comedies such as Knocked Up and 27 Dresses (this movie is very similar to that one). In The Ugly Truth, Heigl plays Abby, a producer for a morning show at a local TV station who dreams of meeting the perfect guy, but deals with controlling issues. The morning show is a complete disaster, the ratings are low so they decide to bring in the charismatic Mike Chadway (Gerard Butler) a man who says things like it is. Mike seems to know everything there is to know about what attracts men and women and Abby is at first completely repulsed by him, but she eventually ends up going to him for advice when she needs help at trying to get a date with her new neighbor, Collin (played by Eric Winter). From this point on everyone who has seen at leat one romcom in the past will probably know where this movie is going.

Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler do what they can with this weak script and there are some laughs thanks in most part to their charm, but at the end it just isn`t enough to save this movie. The supporting characters are almost non-existant or at least I didn`t care for any of them and the entire movie focused on the two main characters and at trying to put every stereotype known to men and women into them. The movie isn`t terrible, but it doesn`t have anything noteworthy either. It was ok for one viewing perhaps, but I won`t be checking this movie out again.