The Ugly Truth (2009) – Movie Review (Below Average)

Director: Robert Luketic
Starring: Katherine Heigl , Gerard Butler , Bree Turner , Eric Winter , Nick Searcy , Jesse D. Goins

What exasperates me in romantic comedies are crass, vulgar and sexist jokes that do nothing but butcher us with stereotypes. Where men are shown as lusty animals who want nothing but sex and females are dumb-blondes who are sexually uptight. It’s amazing that these anti-women films supposedly titled as chick flicks are made for the women audience.
Abby Richter (Katherine Heigl) is an attractive and elegant morning show producer who fervently dreams to meet her Mr. Right. She's in for a rude awakening when her bosses team her up with Mike Chadway (Gerard Butler), a frivolous and a crude TV personality to provide flamboyant ideas to counsel women on the likes and dislikes of men. In a true romantic comedy genre fashion, cupid strikes an arrow and the two, as disparate as chalk and cheese, start falling for each other.

Robert Luketic who has directed some exciting films namely Reese Witherspoon starrer Legally Blond and 21 fails miserably this time. He picks up a clichéd theme without adding any novelty to the characters. The jokes are vulgar and distasteful evoking unintentional laughter. Figure this: Abby(Katherine Heigl) tries a pair of vibrating underwear gifted by Mike(Gerard Butler) and suddenly has an organism in the hotel amidst 100 people - a horribly plagiarized scene from When Harry Met Sally.

It’s hard to believe that such a chauvinist film is written by a woman. In fact the screenplay is attributed to not one but three women. Such stereotypes raise several questions..... Why would a man get attracted to a woman who lacks astuteness and social skills? Why does the climax of such films have to be over-the-top and exaggerated?

Gerard Butler’s accent changes throughout the film. Is he Irish? American? English or Scottish? Gerard Bulter and Katherine Heigl have a decent chemistry in the film but their attraction towards each other makes no sense, they look like good friends and not lovers. Heigl does what we have seen her do a million times - play a dumb! Eric Winter who plays a doctor in the film looks more like a gym instructor.