“The Ugly Truth”

Reviewed 24 July 2009 by Ted Faraone

4 ½ stars out of Five.  $11 ticket on a scale of $0 to $12.

CYRANO MEETS ‘THE RULES’

“The Ugly Truth”, the latest from helmer Robert Luketic via Columbia Pictures, owes a lot to “When Harry Met Sally” and to “Pat and Mike.”  It also owes a tad to an old New York cable TV access show called “The Ugly George Hour of Truth, Sex, and Violence.”  This romantic comedy is conventionalism near its best.  The few nits to pic concern a tad more vulgar language than perhaps is needed and a predictable plot.  Its predictability can be forgiven.  A different ending would disappoint.

That is not to say that “The Ugly Truth” does not go out on a limb:  There are no fewer than two meet-cutes involving only three characters.  Since we have regressed miles from “Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands” in the past 25 years, this has to be resolved one way or the other, not reconciled.

Katherine Heigl is Abby, tightly wound morning news show producer at a Sacramento TV station.  She’s a ‘hard news’ type.  She’ll be Edward R. Murrow or at least Betty Furness given the chance.  She’s also the girl half of both meet-cutes.  Mike (Gerard Butler) is host of “The Ugly Truth,” a cable-TV access show where he dispenses politically incorrect relationship advice.  His on-air persona is nearly Neanderthal.  His credo is that men are interested in only one thing – you guessed it – and that women judge men based on status, money, and power.  He flirts.  He grabs ass.  He is annoyingly self-assured.  And when he’s hired for a twice weekly relationship segment on Abby’s ratings-challenged program (meet-cute no. 1), she verges on apoplexy. 

But when Mike hypos the ratings, Abby, dumps her scruples and runs with it.  Eventually they become friends.  He gives her dating advice to help with Colin (Eric Winter), the guy half of meet cute no. 2.  The advice could have been lifted from the 1990s self-help book for women, “The Rules.”  Never answer the phone on the first ring, find an excuse to keep him on hold, don’t criticize or nag him, do your best to look sexy….

In one extraordinarily funny sequence mid-pic, Mike, using a wireless microphone and IFB, talks Abby through her first date with Colin.  Butler charms as a modern-day Cyrano.  Heigl exudes her share of charm as Abby loosens up, a process marked by a dinner with her corporate chieftains where she loses the remote control for her vibrating panties.  It reminds one of Meg Ryan’s diner climax in “When Harry Met Sally.”  Scene’s plausibility is a credit to screenwriters Nicole Eastman, Karen McCullah Lutz, and Kirsten Smith.  Its farce is a credit to Heigl’s skill at physical comedy.

Things go swimmingly between Abby and Colin, the dreamboat orthopedic surgeon, until TV rears its head.  Mike is booked on Craig Ferguson’s talk show.  The CBS affiliate in San Francisco has its eye on him.  The Ferguson appearance is the audition.  He’s not under contract to the Sacramento station.  Abby is dispatched to Los Angeles to see that Mike does not jump ship – on the very weekend that she is scheduled to make out with Colin in Lake Tahoe.

Plot, which is never slow, shifts into overdrive as the inherent conflict between TV and love takes over.  Mike and Abbey discover a thing for each other in an elevator at the Century Plaza.  Colin shows up to surprise her.  The best laid plans of TV executives go awry.  Mike jumps ship, not to San Francisco, but to a competitor in Sacramento.

The resolution, which happens on live TV, is a Hollywood ending at its best. 

At only 97 minutes “The Ugly Truth” packs a lot of laughs and a complicated plot into a tightly edited package.  Exposition and backstory are handled in a few short scenes and snippets of dialogue.  TV station scenes are realistic.  Technical credits excel, except for recordings of a few of Butler’s lines.  Pic gets an “R” rating thanks to Winter’s buff tush and the surfeit of coarse language. 

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