Another summer wasteland romcom

Rating: 3/10 (14 January 2010)

If Apatow and Meg Ryan movies had a child, it might be The Ugly Truth. Its a cookie-cutter romance filled with lots of cuss words and scatology to make it seem "edgy". As much as the actors want there to be more involved with the movie, the bones just aren't there, and after a few early giggles, The Ugly Truth is exposed as a poor effort.
The Ugly Truth opens with Heigl's character Abby as a depended-on news producer who's love life is in shambles due to her obsessive need for control (she has a checklist of ten things she expects in a man). This is only made all the more clear when she calls into a male romance show led by the a scruffled Mike Chadway (Butler), who chews her out and calls her fat. Of course, Mike is soon hired by her network as a correspondent to increase ratings. Cue shenanigans.
When Abby meets her new 8-packed doctor neighbour (I think he may have extra abs), she falls head over heels and is absolutely clueless how to proceed. Mike finds out and teaches Abby to treat the good doctor as a man, and no one knows men like Mike, who becomes Abby's Mr. Miyagi of men in order to get her to stop complaining about his show.
There is some basic truth to what Mike says. Yes, men don't like being controlled. Yes, men don't fall for personality at first sight. However, the movie works in broad strokes, and as such ends up as both male AND female chauvinistic. Mike's a pig and Abby's a bitch. Somehow through each other they get a little closer to the middle.
Of course, that's because the genre demands it. The movie follows the flow of rom-coms to a ridiculous extent. There really isn't much original at all going on in this plot. The ending is particularly terrible, the character shifts being far too sudden.
The movie has some funny bits at the beginning, with Butler playing the over-the-top pig. Unfortunately, once we get over the fact that there's some particularly nasty cuss words in a rom-com, most of the rest seems pretty stale. A half-hour of mildly-funny does not make up for a very unfunny next hour. Admittedly, there were a few unintentional laughs towards the end.
The actors do their best. Heigl is cute and annoying, as she should be, and has a future in these kind of movies. Butler shouldn't be wasting his time, but does what the script demands quite well. Eric Winter seems to be fit enough for the dreamy doc role, even if his face is a little creepy. Cheryl Hines and John Michael Higgins are the saving grace of the first third as the husband-and-wife co-anchors, but they quickly fall to the background after their time is up.
The Ugly Truth is just another entry in the wasteland of summer rom-coms, even if its one that earns an R-rating. No amount of dick jokes can make up for that.