 shallow hal is a 2001 romantic comedy film starring gwyneth paltrow, jack black, and jason alexander. it was directed by the farrelly brothers and filmed in and around charlotte, north carolina as well as sterling and princeton, massachusetts at wachusett mountain. == plot == hal larson (jack black) is a superficial man whose fixation on the physical beauty of women gets in the way of seeing them for their inner beauty. hal and his equally shallow friend, mauricio wilson (jason alexander), spend their nights obnoxiously hitting on beautiful women at nightclubs. hal's work life is steady, but he is dismayed after being passed over for a long-sought promotion. by a twist of fate, hal becomes trapped in an elevator with famous american life coach tony robbins. getting to know hal while awaiting the workmen's effort to get the elevator operational again, tony robbins sympathizes with hal's work disappointment but tries to figure out his ideas about women, so he hypnotizes him into only seeing physical manifestations of a person's inner beauty. hal agrees to robbins' suggestion but does not catch on to the fact it is hypnosis, and later meets and is smitten by rosemary shanahan (gwyneth paltrow), the daughter of steve shanahan (joe viterelli), the president of the company where hal is employed. rosemary is morbidly obese, but hal sees her as a slender and beautiful trophy blonde because of her kind and generous personality. mr. shanahan is not certain about hal dating his daughter, thinking that hal may be going to any lengths to get to the top of the corporate ladder. used to being overlooked by men due to her appearance, rosemary initially interprets halâs interest in her as mocking, but begins to date hal when she realizes his feelings for her are authentic. mauricio becomes increasingly worried about hal's new taste in women and convinces robbins to give him the trigger phrase to undo the hypnosis.
2000s_romantic_comedy_films 2001_films 20th_Century_Fox_films American_films American_romantic_comedy_films Body_image_in_popular_culture English-language_films Fantasy-comedy_films Films_directed_by_the_Farrelly_brothers Films_set_in_Montana Films_shot_in_North_Carolina Obesity