THE UGLY TRUTH — ★★ — Katherine Heigl, Gerard Butler, Eric Winter; rated R (vulgarity, profanity, sex, slurs, violence, brief partial nudity); in general release
What "The Ugly Truth" reveals is that, despite her limited success on the small screen and the big screen, Katherine Heigl is still not that great of an actress.
That becomes even more apparent when watching her performance in this by-the-numbers and surprisingly crude feature.
Heigl is trying much too hard to become a modern-day, screwball comedy star — in the same way that Sandra Bullock has.
So it's lucky she and the film are both rescued — at least to a degree — by Gerard Butler. The Scottish actor's gruffness comes as a welcome antidote to the sometimes toxic sweetness and sticky story machinations.
(However, the acting coach who worked with Butler on his unconvincing, faux-American accent needs to give back that unearned paycheck.)
Heigl stars as Abby Richter, a Sacramento television news producer whose morning show is failing in the ratings.
So to spice things up, the station manager hires a new commentator for the show, Mike Chadway (Butler).
As you'd expect, sparks fly between control-freak Abby and the chauvinistic Mike, who's already winning over new viewers with his often blunt "Ugly Truth" segments.
Even more surprising: Mike agrees to do a Cyrano routine with Abby to help her romance her hunky new neighbor, Colin (Eric Winter).
Among the bigger problems with the film is the story and script, which comes from the writers of "Legally Blonde" and "The House Bunny." Like those earlier, better movies, this is so predictable you could set your clock to its story "beats."
And director Robert Luketic ("21") seems unable to reign in Heigl's more frantic performance tendencies. She's not funny, she's a little shrill.
So by the time we get to the inevitable pairing up of the two leads, we're just not that interested in seeing it happen. The unpleasant Abby doesn't deserve to find happiness with anyone, much less Mike — who, it turns out, has a soft gooey center he's been concealing underneath his shell of crustiness.
"The Ugly Truth" is rated R and features crude sexual humor (sight gags and references), other sexual language (strong profanity, slang and innuendo), simulated sex and other sexual contact, derogatory language and slurs (some of its sexist), some brief, supposed comic violence (some slapstick), and brief partial male nudity. Running time: 96 minutes.
e-mail: jeff@desnews.com