The Ugly Truth

Philip French, The Observer, Sunday 9 August 2009 Article history
Produced by its female star (and involving as much personal embarrassment for her as Sandra Bullock provided for herself as producer-star of last month's The Proposal), this is an old-fashioned battle-of-the-sexes comedy refurbished with the kind of language (mostly about oral sex) that would once have made a maiden blush, though blushing maidens are now rarer than flame-snorting dragons.
Katherine Heigl plays a workaholic daytime TV producer in Sacramento who's forced by a ratings crisis to employ charmless, shock-jock, male chauvinist Gerard Butler on her programme. His slobbish counselling turns her into a sex-hungry slut, he discovers a more considerate, sensitive inner gentleman and they pass each other going in different directions before getting together on a hot-air balloon. The most shy-making scene in a distasteful film occurs when Heigl tries on a pair of vibrating panties, is suddenly whisked off to a smart restaurant and has a loud, long-drawn-out orgasm while making a pitch to network executives. Where are Harry and Sally when we need them?

1. Summary
This is a review written by Philip French about the movie: The Ugly Truth. He finds it an old-fashioned battle-of-the-sexes comedy. He thinks there’s a sexual use of language, mainly about oral sex. He thinks the scene where Katherine Heigl is wearing a pair of vibrating underwear and is having a loud orgasm, is the most shy-making scene. He ends with the sentence: ‘where are Harry and Sally when we need them?’ This sentence is probably referring to the movie: ‘When Harry met Sally’ where Sally is also having a loud orgasm in a lunchroom.

I don't agree with the reviewer. The review is set with a negative tone. But I don't agree, because there is tension in the movie: if she's going to stay with Gerard Butler or not. I thought this film kept fascinating me. Of course I agree with the reviewer about the distasteful scene where she's wearing a vibrating panties. But at the other hand the audience, when I watched the film, was laughing quite loud at this scene.

2. Why did you choose this text?
I’ve chosen for this film review, because yesterday I went to the cinema to watch this film, The Ugly Truth. I was curious what other people, in this case a reviewer, think of this film.

3. Typical examples of vocabulary and style
Vocabulary
For me it was a difficult use of language. First because he uses very long sentences. The first paragraph is only one sentence and the whole review consists out of only three sentences! Also he has a difficult use of words. For example: flame-snorting and shock-jock.
Style
The reviewer uses a lot of hyphenation, which is used to join words: battle-of-the-sexes, shock-jock, sexy-hungry, shy-making and long-drawn-out.

4. Type of text
A review belongs to mass communication. It’s an evaluation of a publication, in this case of a film. It is meant for a wide audience. It can be read by people who would like to watch the film, but don’t know if it’s good enough. Or by people, like me, who would like to know what other people, reviewers, think of the film.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/aug/09/ugly-truth-film-review