The Ugly Truth Movie Reviews

In times when men often have smoother cheeks than the women they date, the rules of romance have changed. Sensitive is in, rough is out. But Mike Chadway (Gerald Butler) has a time-tested theory of what men want. Beneath the veneer of soft and soulful, he believes, all men have only one thing on their minds. Or, is it two? "We all fall in love with t*ts and ar*e," he declares early. For him, that's the ugly truth that women chasing dreamboats

A raunchy rom-com promoting the done-to-death made-for-each-other concept, this film is every bit as puerile and unimaginative as expected, yet it manages to bring on the laughs -- at least a few! Abbie (Heigl), a producer for the Sacramento morning television show, is a control freak, as bossy and uptight as they come, while Mike (Butler) is the ape-in-lovable-cad boots who does his best to drive her up the wall.

If one were asked to name some of the things present-day Hollywood cinema has not been able to achieve, a sparkling romantic comedy would probably figure on top of the list. New ideas, situations or flourishes seldom surface nowadays. Mistaking double entendres for wit and glibness for depth, this chick-flick desperately strives to put a spin on the familiar battle-of-the sexes premise. The two professional rivals here are a high-strung TV producer (Heigl) and a special correspondent (Butler)

If one of the posters for The Ugly Truth is to be believed, women experience love with their heads while men approach the whole enterprise from a place further south on their anatomy charts. Now this is an American movie claiming American realities and while it would be safe to suggest that men all over the world can behave like pigs let's just, for the sake of this review, decide that all men are not created equally unpleasant.

A low-brow romantic comedy filled with predictable jokes, The Ugly Truth stars Grey's Anatomy's Katherine Heigl as Abby Richter, a whiny, control-freak television producer who's forced to work with a boorish, sexist Neanderthal, Mike Chadway (played by Gerard Butler) when her show's ratings begin to dip. Coming off a hit late-night show on cable television in which he dishes out lewd relationship advice to women, Chadway represents everything she hates.

That tap-tap-tapping sound you hear is another nail being driven into the coffin of the romantic comedy. Over the years this sturdy if supple genre has survived extraordinary cultural and social changes, most notably the suffragist movement in the early part of the last century and women’s rights toward the latter. Liberated women, along with the pill, quickie divorces, swinging couples, blended families and various wars both abroad and at home might have dinged the genre

Do opposites attract? Not so much in this romantic comedy about an uptight single TV producer Abby (Heigl) and Mike (Butler), a chauvinistic host of a dating show where he gives expert advice on how women should use sex to attract men. When Abby's show tumbles in ratings, she's instructed to work with Mike and use his charms to rope in the audience. Along the way, they make a bet: if Abby fails to win over a man using Mike's strategies, he will agree to quit the show.