This Truth Is Not So Ugly.

Rating: 7/10 (16 November 2009)

As I type, "The Ugly Truth" sits at a measly 15% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The so-called "Top Critics" were even less kind, awarding it a 10% approval rating. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone called it "ugly crap." Lou Lumenick of the New York Post called it "crass and contrived." It might seem then that "The Ugly Truth" scrapes the bottom of the romantic comedy barrel (a bottom, I might add, that was scraped bare a decade ago)...but I must raise my hand in modest protest, providing what I hope will be a reasonable response to both this decidedly good film and all of its many naysayers. Certainly, it is contrived, plotted out by a shockingly predictable formula, and it is indeed vulgar, though I would not go so far as to label it crass. Why, I wonder, is it wrong for a rom-com to use words like the f-word or any of a variety of sexually-focused words when so many other films have used them far more often and far more inappropriately?
Perhaps it is because these words are coming from the lips of the newly-crowned queen of the romantic comedy: Katherine Heigl. That could have been the case, of course, had Ms. Heigl not starred in "Knocked Up", a film in which she and Seth Rogen seemed to be in a battle to see who could say the f-word and its derivatives the most. Perhaps it is because they come from Gerard Butler...well, now, that is just plain ridiculous. After all, he bared his bum in "300" and has never been known for being G-rated. I am left then with the belief that it is because this frank dialog, including bad language and lots of blunt conversations about sex, was written by three women rather than by one of the male screenwriters in Judd Apatow's passé. This is, of course, not a condemnation of Mr. Apatow or any of his colleagues, who I happen to believe use the f-word better than most anyone else. It is just that, in the grand scheme of things, I thought "The Ugly Truth" used it quite appropriately as well.
Please read my full review on my blog: www.whathappensincinema.blogspot.com