Bipolar acting (Katherine Heigl) meets a contrived script. That's The Ugly Truth.......no seriously, that's The Ugly Truth.

Not a good week for movies, I wasn't really prepared to go see one of my favorite comedians toss it up with a bunch of gerbils, and The Ugly Truth didn't seem anything special but I was convinced to go anyway. I'm actually glad I went to see this film. It's everything wrong that can go wrong with a script. 

The plot is simple, a television show producer (Heigl) who is not so skilled romantically begins taking hints from a shovinistic man whore (Gerard Butler). The Ugly Truth is probably the worst performance from Katherine Heigl that she could muster. The entire first half of the film is some of the most contrived acting I've ever seen from her. Everyone including the extras did a better job than she did. Towards the last half of the film when Heigl actually gets a feel for the character her performance gets better but by then I tuned her out. 

Gerard Butler simply looked like he was having fun. He's completely natural the entire time, except for one scene which wasn't his fault. 

I tend to hound writers a lot, and this would be a perfect example of where to start off badly for a debut screenplay by Nicole Eastman. Co-writer Karen Lutz although having several scripts under her belt, and most of them not worth mentioning, did not help her much. Every single scene in this movie is contrived. The set up to each scene is clearly defined and tells you exactly where the scene is going to go next. Like when the cat comes down the stairs with Heigl he suddenly darts out the open window in the corner and climbs a tree. Heigl then climbs a tree, rescues the cat, then see's a walking Kalvin Clein commercial just come out of the shower, and then she falls and hangs upside down from the tree and the man comes to her rescue. That's how every bit of this movie went. And none of it was romantic in the slightest. It's a like a giant sign just hanging in the yard  which reads, "GO HERE NEXT --->"

Yes I realize it's a romantic film (I would not say comedy, I laughed 7 times maybe), and I actually let go of that of that fact. The only time when this movie actually does anything is the dance scene with Heigl and Butler dancing together, they look natural together, there is actual romance taking place. Heigl is actually dancing and enjoying her character. And that's the best part of the movie. Also if you're going to film a sex scene the woman doesn't usually look picture perfect Stepford afterwards. And if that was written in the script....well then.....

Save yourself a headache, but if you want a great lesson in where scripting influences heavily on how the film will go, then watch this film. Also this should show you how not to direct a character from California to Antartica. And that's The Ugly Truth.

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