Shallow Hal

Hal Larson is a superficial man with a heart of gold whose fixation on the physical beauty of women gets in the way of seeing their inner beauty. Hal and his equally shallow friend, Mauricio (Jason Alexander), spend their nights obnoxiously hitting on beautiful, sexy women at nightclubs and mostly end up getting rejected. Hal's work life is steady, but he is dismayed after being passed over for a long-sought promotion. His love life is non-existent, as seen when he tries to ask Jill, his attractive neighbor, out for a date. Jill is not interested as she finds Hal too shallow and is generally not attracted to him.

Hal becomes trapped in an elevator with life coach Tony Robbins. While waiting for the elevator to be fixed, Robbins sympathizes with Hal's disappointment, but tries to figure out his ideas about women. He hypnotizes Hal into only seeing a person's inner beauty. Hal does not realize he's been hypnotized and later meets Rosemary, daughter of the president of the company where he is employed. Rosemary is morbidly obese, but Hal sees her as a slender and beautiful trophy blonde. He is immediately smitten by her. Used to being overlooked due to her appearance, Rosemary initially interprets Hal's interest as mockery, but begins to realize his feelings for her are sincere. They begin to date, which includes a bike ride with Hal's friend Walt, who has spina bifida.

Mauricio, worried about Hal's new taste in women, convinces Robbins to give him the trigger phrase to undo the hypnosis, which is "Shallow Hal wants a gal". While on a date in a restaurant, Rosemary tells Hal she's been asked by the Peace Corps to go on a 14-month mission in Kiribati. Mauricio phones Hal and says the trigger phrase, breaking Hal's hypnosis. Mauricio confesses to Hal the truth about Robbins' hypnotherapy, but Hal does not believe it until he runs into a woman who initially appeared beautiful to him but whom Hal now sees in her true, physically unattractive state.

Hal begins to avoid Rosemary, who becomes depressed without him around. Distraught that he was not seeing the "real" Rosemary, Hal accepts a dinner invitation from Jill. The two dine together and Jill tells Hal that she has observed him overcoming his shallow nature and is interested in dating him now.

Hal realizes his true feelings for Rosemary who has, coincidentally, arrived at the same restaurant with her family and sees Hal and Jill sitting together. Assuming the worst, Rosemary leaves in tears. Not recognizing Rosemary, Hal walks right by her on his way to a payphone to call her and reassure her of his feelings. Confused and distraught, Rosemary calls Hal a "psycho" over the phone and effectively breaks up with him.

Five days later, Steve informs Hal that Rosemary’s Peace Corps partner, Ralph, wants to be in a relationship with her again. Hal attempts to find Rosemary, but instead encounters a young patient named Cadence at the hospital where Rosemary volunteers. Previously, due to Robbins' hypnosis, Hal saw Cadence as a perfect little girl; he now sees that there are severe burns all over Cadence's face. Inspired by Cadence, Hal changes his views on the physical appearances of people in general.

Hal, during his search for Rosemary, finds that Mauricio had his own reason for stopping Hal's hypnosis: He has an inoperable vestigial tail, which has prevented him from ever getting close to a woman. Mauricio confesses he was envious of Hal's happiness and is afraid to start a relationship with a woman. Hal convinces Mauricio to accept his abnormality, with confidence.

Hal makes up with Mauricio and decides to reconcile with Rosemary. He heads to the Peace Corps recruiting office and confronts Ralph, believing he and Rosemary got back together. Ralph informs Hal that he and Rosemary are not together and that Rosemary's parents are throwing her a farewell party (and Ralph wasn't invited). Hal, Mauricio, Ralph and Ralph's friend Li’iBoy arrive at the home of Rosemary's parents. Rosemary initially rebuffs Hal's presence, but then accepts his apology when Hal professes his love for her. Rosemary informs Hal she is still leaving on her Peace Corps mission. Hal says he is coming, too, having just been sworn into the Peace Corps by Li’iBoy.

Hal and Rosemary reconcile, cheered by the crowd as they kiss. He tries to carry her bridal-style to the car, but finds he cannot lift her. Moved by his gesture and effort, she triumphantly carries him instead. As they drive off, Mauricio meets a woman who loves dogs and the two walk off together as he wags his tail.

• Jack Black as Hal Larson
• Gwyneth Paltrow as Rosemary "Rosie" Shanahan
• Jason Alexander as Mauricio Wilson
• Joe Viterelli as Steve Shanahan
• Jill Christine Fitzgerald as Mrs. Shanahan
• Tony Robbins as Himself
• Bruce McGill as Reverend Larson
• Molly Shannon as Mrs. Mary Larson (uncredited)
• Sasha Neulinger as young Hal
• Susan Ward as Jill
• Rene Kirby as Walt
• Kyle Gass as Artie
• Laura Kightlinger as Jen
• Brooke Burns as Katrina
• Sayed Badreya as Dr. Sayed
• Zen Gesner as Ralph
• Joshua Shintani as Li’iBoy[3]
• Ron Darling as other Li'iBoy
• Sascha Knopf as gorgeous Tanya
• Nan Martin as Nurse Tanya Peeler
• Mary Wigmore as Cute Tiffany
• Rob Moran as second Tiffany
• Michael Corrente as homeless man #2
• Darius Rucker as restaurant maitre d'

Writer Sean Moynihan is legally blind and was inspired by Tony Robbins to write the script. Earlier versions of the story did not include Robbins and a psychic was responsible for Hal's change of view.[4]

In December 1999 Paltrow was in talks to star.[5] The Farrely brothers tried unsuccessfully to get Gary Shandling to star as Mauricio.[6] before Jason Alexander was cast. Production was moved up in order to get the film completed before July 1 and a threatened Screen Actors Guild strike.[6] Filming took place in Charlotte, North Carolina.[7]

The Farrelly Brothers defended the movie and its plot to critics,[8] arguing it was more than a mere "fat joke" type of movie and was instead one that had a strong message about “inner beauty”.[9]

Gwyneth Paltrow played both roles, slim and fat Rosemary (except for a couple of close-up shots of fat Rosemary below the neck, which were played by her body double Ivy Snitzer[10]), and had to wear a specially designed 25-pound fatsuit[11] and encapsulating prosthetic make-up.[12] She later admitted that she did not enjoy partaking in production of the movie,[13] in particular dreading having to wear the fat suit and makeup. The prosthetic make-up effects and body suits for Rosemary, Rosemary's mother, and all of the secondary characters were designed and created by Tony Gardner and his company Alterian, Inc.[11]

Shallow Hal was released on VHS and DVD in July 2002, and topped the rental charts the week it was released.[20] It also performed well on Pay Per View. Fox released the film only 30 (rather than 45) days after its debut on DVD and video, and it became the top performing PPV title of 2002.[21]

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Shallow Hal

• Shallow Hal at IMDb
• Shallow Hal at AllMovie
• Shallow Hal at the TCM Movie Database
• Shallow Hal Official Fox site