What a vile load of rubbish

Rating: Null/10 (13 August 2011)

This film is probably the most unpleasant pile of trash I've seen for a long time. Perhaps they were going for some kind of sophisticated battle of the sexes comedy a la Cary Grant/Katherine Hepburn but they were way, way, way off the mark! This film seems to pride itself on the perpetuation of the stereotype that men are void of emotion and only seeking sex and women are controlling harpies who have a checklist of requirements that must be met in order for them to give a guy a second glance. Yes, the main characters get together at the end but only after we are subjected to a stream of disgusting clichés, insults and sexist 'jokes'. The contrived set-pieces, such as the vibrating knickers scene, are dismally unfunny and actually embarrassing to watch. I have no idea what drew either Katherine Heigl or Gerard Butler to think this was a worthwhile project.
The messages put forward by the film are extremely toxic e.g. that the best way for a women to get a man is to strip herself of her own identity and change herself completely into a stereotype of 'what men want'. Equally, I imagine that many men would be insulted to be described in the way they are by Gerard Butler's character, who essentially portrays them as nothing but sexist pigs. The fact that Heigl's character dumps the man she deceived into asking her out and that Butler's character realises at the last minute that he loves her doesn't exonerate the filmmakers from the crime of crassly pedalling sexist rubbish throughout the majority of the film. Both sexes have worked hard to counter these stereotypes over the last century but this film seeks to resurrect them for the purposes of a few cheap laughs.
I felt pretty undermined and violated by the end of this film. It was like going back at least 50 years to the worst periods of sexism and gender politics, with excessive swearing and copious amounts of vulgarity thrown in simply for the sake of it. I would strongly advise against wasting your time watching 'The Ugly Truth', which while certainly ugly, gets nowhere near to representing the truth about modern relationships.