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The Ugly Truth

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The Ugly Truth
Theatrical release poster
Directed byRobert Luketic
Written byStory:
Nicole Eastman
Screenplay:
Nicole Eastman
Karen McCullah Lutz
Kirsten Smith
Produced byKatherine Heigl
Karen McCullah Lutz
Kirsten Smith
Tom Rosenberg
StarringKatherine Heigl
Gerard Butler
Bonnie Somerville
Yvette Nicole Brown
CinematographyRussell Carpenter
Edited byLisa Zeno Churgin
Music byAaron Zigman
Production
companies
Distributed byColumbia Pictures
Release date
July 24, 2009 (2009-07-24)
Running time
96 minutes
CountryTemplate:FilmUS
LanguageEnglish
Budget$38 million
Box office$205,298,907[1]

The Ugly Truth is a Template:Fy American romantic comedy film starring Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler. The film was released in North America on July 24, 2009.

Plot

Abby Richter (Katherine Heigl) is a morning show TV producer in Sacramento, California. Coming home from a disastrous date one night, she happens to see a segment of a local television show, "The Ugly Truth", run by Mike Chadway (Gerard Butler), whose cynicism about relationships prompts Abby to call into the show to argue with him on-air. The next day, she discovers that the station is threatening to cancel her show because of its poor ratings, and the station owner has hired Mike to do a segment on her show to bring them back up.

At first, the two have a rocky relationship; Abby thinks Mike is crass and disgusting while Mike finds Abby to be a control freak. Nevertheless, when she meets the man of her dreams, a doctor named Colin (Eric Winter) living next to her, Mike persuades her to follow his lead. She agrees to his helpful advice and if he can get her the man she wants, proving his theories on relationships, she will work happily with him, but if Mike fails, he agrees to quit.[2]

Mike succeeds in improving the ratings of the show, helps bring the married co-anchors closer together, and successfully guides Abby to be exactly what Colin would want. Mike is invited to appear on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson and is being offered the chance to move to another network. Abby is forced to cancel a romantic weekend away with Colin, during which they had planned to finally sleep together, and instead go with Mike and persuade him to stay with the morning show. After the show, they go for drinks and dancing, and Mike admits he doesn't want to move and is happier to stay in Sacramento with his sister and nephew. In the elevator, they passionately kiss and almost get to the point of intense sex but leave for their separate rooms when the doors open. Mike, dealing with his inner conflict of the intensity of his feelings for Abby, calls on her room only to find Colin has shown up to surprise her. He leaves Abby to be with Colin. Abby is upset and soon realizes Colin only likes the woman she has been pretending to be, not the real her, and she breaks up with him.

Mike leaves for another local station, but ends up doing an outside broadcast at the same hot-air balloon festival as Abby, and he cannot resist returning to argue with her when she kicks the new "Mike Chadway" imitator off the air and goes into a tirade about men. The balloon they are standing in takes off while they argue and finally, Abby tells Mike she broke up with Colin, and Mike admits he loves her. Abby then kisses him and they are shown kissing passionately while flying off in the balloon. Despite their obvious differences, they stay together and at the end of the movie, are shown having intense sex. Mike, unsure of whether he's taught Abby how to fake too well, asks if her response at climax was genuine after the lights are switched on. Abby responds by smiling and saying he'll never know before shutting off the lights again.

Cast

  • Katherine Heigl as Abby Richter, a romantically challenged morning show producer[2]
  • Gerard Butler as Mike Chadway, her male chauvinist correspondent
  • Eric Winter as Colin Anderson, an orthopaedic surgeon who lives across from Abby. In the alternate ending he is shown to be in a relationship with Joy, Abby's assistant and friend.
  • Cheryl Hines as Georgia, co-anchor of the morning show, married to Larry[2]
  • John Michael Higgins as Larry, co-anchor of the morning show, married to Georgia
  • Bree Turner as Joy, assistant to Abby who is also love starved and lives vicariously through Abby. In the alternate ending she is shown to be in a relationship with Colin.
  • Kevin Connolly as Jim, a blind date
  • Yvette Nicole Brown as Dori
  • Craig Ferguson as Himself

Production

The film is made by the producers of Legally Blonde[2] and written by a team of three women.[3]

The Mike Chadway character is allegedly based on and inspired by Adam Carolla. Gerard Butler sat in on The Adam Carolla Show, observing only, in order to prepare for his role.[4]

Filming locations

The film was, for the most part, filmed on location in California, including Sacramento, Los Angeles, and San Pedro.

Soundtrack

A soundtrack was released on August 4th, but only contained music composed for the film. Below are the songs featured in the film.

  1. "Hot 'n' Cold" by Katy Perry
  2. "Cafe Metropole" by Rick Krive
  3. "Catz Meow" by Scott Robinson
  4. "Solo Violin 2" by Daniel May
  5. "Everybody Got Their Something" by Nikka Costa
  6. "Pocketful of Sunshine" by Natasha Bedingfield
  7. "Under the Covers" by Josh Kelley
  8. "Soluna" by Los Pinguos
  9. "De Vez en Cuando" by Los Pinguos
  10. "El Gitano del Amor" by Latin Soul Syndicate
  11. "Chainsaw" by Daniel Merriweather
  12. "Right Round" by Flo Rida featuring Ke$ha

Reception

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film received generally negative reviews and as of August 7, 2009 received a 14% approval rate based on 148 reviews, compared to the site's community score of 58% approval.[5][5] Rolling Stone critic Peter Travers gave the movie a half star out of four, stating: "There's not a genuine laugh in it [...] Toss this ugly-ass crap to the curb, along with the other multiplex garbage, and see a romance that gets it right. I'm talking (500) Days of Summer." [6]

Ruth McCann of The Washington Post called the film "indulgently glossy, refreshingly snarky and legitimately sexy".[7] Kara Nesvig of the Star Tribune said "the dialogue is snappy and sexy, Heigl and Butler spar with zingy chemistry, and though the ending is as predictable as you'd assume, it's a sexy sort of popcorn flick". {{citation}}: Empty citation (help) The A.V. Club gave the movie a D.[8]

Critic Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film two out of four stars, saying that Heigl and Butler were "pleasant" but "the movie does them in." He commented on the restaurant scene that also was a red-band clip on YouTube[9], saying that "Heigl makes a real effort" but that Meg Ryan's scene in When Harry Met Sally was the gold standard "in this rare but never boring category". As for portraying the morning news realistically, he says "the film makes Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy look like a documentary".[3]

Box office

The film opened to third place at the box office - behind Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (in its second weekend) and the newly released G-Force — with $27,605,576 and the highest per-screen average in the top 10. As of November 8, 2009, the film has grossed $88.7 million domestically and $110.7 million from foreign markets for a worldwide total of $199.4 million becoming Katherine Heigl's second best grossing movie behind Knocked Up.[10]

In Great Britain and Ireland, the film topped the box office and took in £1.9m in its opening weekend, fighting off competition from G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, which entered at number two with £1.7m. {{citation}}: Empty citation (help)

Home media

The Ugly Truth was released on DVD and Blu-Ray on November 10, 2009.

References

  1. ^ "The Ugly Truth at Box Office Mojo". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2009-10-31.
  2. ^ a b c d Tatiana Siegel (2008-03-17). = 1238&cs = 1 "Cheryl Hines learns 'The Ugly Truth'". Variety. Retrieved 2008-08-15. {{cite news}}: Check |url= value (help)
  3. ^ a b http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090722/REVIEWS/907229983
  4. ^ http://www.adamcarolla.com/ACPBlog/2009/10/26/adam-lucas-foster-and-michael-irby/
  5. ^ a b The Ugly Truth at Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2009-10-31.
  6. ^ http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/movie/21416728/review/29304802/the_ugly_truth
  7. ^ McCann, Ruth (2009-07-24). "A Rom-Com So 'Ugly' It's Delightful". Retrieved 2009-10-31.
  8. ^ http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-ugly-truth,30784/
  9. ^ The Ugly Truth - Ceviche Orgasm on YouTube. Retrieved 2009-10-31.
  10. ^ Box Office Mojo Chart 2009 weekend 30

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