When it comes to the mating game in the animal world, smells and scents might be incredibly important in terms of signaling who's ready for what and where. Yet, visual cues are just as and sometimes even more important than their aromatic kindred. After all, a male raccoon can't wander up to a female one and ask, "What's a masked cutie like you doing in a garbage can like this?"
Humans, of course, can verbally communicate and thus indicate exactly what they're interested in (while delivering pick-up lines far worse than the above), but they also continue to do so, in one way or another, on more primitive and even subconscious levels.
While men often try to act enlightened about their baser instincts, and women hope/wish/demand that such guys see them as something beyond potential conquests, both sides need to realize and/or accept the ugly truth. **Warning: Gender generalizations to follow**
In short, men are hard-wired to look at women for their physical attributes and appearance, while the ladies obviously know that and thus wear make-up and sexy attire to try to make themselves more attractive to the opposite sex. When either side pooh-poohs that fact and/or tries to buck that scenario, complications, conflict and maybe even just some comedy are sure to arise.
Or so hopes director Robert Luketic and writers Nicole Eastman and Karen McCullah Lutz & Kirsten Smith who take yet the umpteenth cinematic stab at addressing human dating and mating issues in "The Ugly Truth." The rare, traditional style romantic comedy to be rated R rather than the usual, studio standard PG-13, the film contains a smattering of laughs, some quite attractive leads, and enough decent comedy-based adversarial meets romantic chemistry between them to get by.
Unfortunately, it follows the genre playbook to such a T that practically nothing will come as much of a surprise to anyone who's seen this sort of rom-com before. Nor does it discover anything new or instill anything insightful about the eons old human mating ritual that hasn't been covered before in far better films such as "When Harry Met Sally" or even the more recent (and less memorable) "He's Just Not That Into You" from earlier this year.
On the surface, the decision to bump the material up a ratings notch into R territory seems like a breath of fresh air, at least in terms of trying to do or be something at least a little different than what occurs in the plethora of such PG-13 flicks released year in and year out.
Alas, even that doesn't work that well, as the coarser (and sometimes explicit) content rarely matches that found in the Judd Apatow line of relationship films. Thus, rather than the material coming off as crude yet witty, engaging and/or smart, it simply feels like a standard romantic comedy with an explicit coat of paint covering the same old, same old that's simply way too predictable, coincidental and/or unbelievable to make us care.
Heigl and Butler are certainly easy on the eyes, but their characters are so rote (she being a beautiful woman whose "control freak" behavior scares off the guys, he's a coarse but charming cad whose demeanor masks some degree of eventually revealed insecurity) and their relationship so utterly conventional -- they clash at first, he then helps her with her budding romance with a neighborly doctor (Eric Winter as the hunky doc), and then sparks finally start flying -- that there's no surprise or sense of spontaneity.
A running subplot -- featuring John Michael Higgins and Cheryl Hines as married, but sexually frustrated morning TV talk show hosts who get their mojo back thanks to some of the male protag's advice -- is similarly about as certain as they come.
Even the various "signature" set pieces -- a Cyrano type moment at the ballpark where Mike watches from afar and feeds Abby words and "how to get a guy" commands via an earpiece, as well as a supposedly embarrassing vibrating panties moment during a business meeting at a busy restaurant -- unfold exactly as one completely expects.
With just the right touch involving any of the writing, direction and/or acting, those moments could have become classics (think of Meg Ryan in the diner faking her sexual ecstasy in "WHMS"). Sadly, they play out sitcom style, and while they might generate laughs of varying degrees in less-discerning viewers, the flat, conventional and unoriginal way in which they're handled robs them -- and thus the viewer -- of all they could and should have been.
All of that said, let's face it, many women are attracted to these sorts of films and their predictable, rote nature, while the apparent appearance of such "chick flicks" often has guys running in the opposite direction. Considering the approach this film takes (coarse, R-rated material, a guy telling it like it is regarding men and dating, etc.) this might just initially appeal to those possessing the XY chromosome just as much as those with the XX one. Many a member of both genders, however, may wish "The Ugly Truth" ultimately had a smarter head on its shoulders and/or a bigger heart in its chest. The film rates as a 3 out of 10.
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