One of my favorite movies is the Ugly Truth. This movie is a romantic comedy. It is about this girl Abby, who has trouble keeping a relationship. Her company brings on a new employee, Mike, and they do not get along, but he attempts to help her get and continue a relationship with a orthopedic surgeon. While doing this, they both discover they have feeling for each other. Some things happen where hate enters the picture, but like any other love story, they end up kissing at the end and living happily every after! I think this movie has all of the qualities of a compelling film- the story line comes full circle- they meet, they hate each other, then they love each other. The audio (the music fits perfectly with the scenes) and set, especially the scene where they confess their love (looking out at all the hot air balloons) help to make this movie a great one. But these are just my opinions, lets now take into account Roger Ebert’s “How to Read a Movie”, we will look at 3 key scenes from this movie and compare them to they what a good movie should employ.
Scene 1:
While watching TV, a show comes on about what men are really looking for, Abby gets irritated and infuriated while watching and calls in to confront this man, Mike (who in the end she falls in love with). He is on the TV in the right and she is in the left, this is suppose to show that he is dominant over her. Which is the case in this scene because he is calling her out on a make believe guy with qualities that no guy possesses, so yes in fact he is dominating the scene. Also foreground and background strategies are employed here. The TV with the Mike is in the background and is now the main image in the scene, while her blurry head is in the forground and is of less focus. This shows the changing emotions of the scene, where she was angry and telling him what she felt, and now she is embarrassed and sad because he is calling her out on it. I choose this scene because this is technically their first meeting!
Watch this clip to see what I mean:

Scene2:
The next scene I choose to analyze is when Mike comes to Abby’s room after a passionate elevator kiss, possibly to confess his love to her, but when he arrives he is met by Colin, the surgeon, who surprised Abby. In this scene, Abby and Colin are on the right because they are the ones who are dominating at this time, them together is what causes emotional pain to Mike who is on the left. But you can also tell by the look on Abby’s face, the right side may not exactly be where she wants to be.
Scene 3:
The last key scene in the movie is when Abby and Mike are fighting in the air balloon, and I love you slips out and they kiss. This is when the story line comes full circle and they fall in love and confess it. Funny what truth comes out in a heated argument, good thing this truth wasn’t ugly ! When the kiss happens, it starts in the left side of the screen, because she walks to him, then the do a spin move and the kiss is continued in the right side of the screen, while this may sound silly, it follows the “How to Read a Movie” by Ebert, because love “positive” conqured hate “negative.”
**Here is what I am talking about! This clip entails a lot more than the scene I was referring to, but if just interested in the scene I was talking about you can watch from about 7:52 to about 12:45.

Camera angles – Camera angles were for the most part great, they helped added feeling to the shot. There are a couple of shots where you see the face of one person and the back of the head of another person, I think it would have been better to shoot the shot from the side so we can see both faces and their reactions to the scene

Lighting – The lighting was good for the most part, it never overpowered the shot. Even in the scenes shot a night, the lighting was right on, and the scene is portrayed really well. There was one part in Abby’s house where the lighting was a little dim, it could have been a little brighter, it just seemed kind of out of place because lighting in the rest of the film made the scene look really bright (but not over the top, the brightness worked).

Characters- I think the actors Heigl and Butler are perfect for this movie, I think their chemistry is undeniable and intense! PS so glad they got together in the end!

Dialogue: Perfect! It was hilarious, sweet, romantic, serious, intense! All of these feelings/emotions in one script, it had to be good!

The story line is a classic – girl hates boy then girl and boy fall in love! Love stories are my favorite genre of movie!

Message: Love happens in unexpected ways. Be yourself!

Whether the writers, directors, and producers employed these characteristics on purpose or it was by chance, they hit a hole in one! Overall when determining whether a movie is good because it follows Ebert’s ideas or because it’s romantic and makes you laugh, if you enjoy the movie, watch it! And “The Ugly Truth” is one to enjoy, because it is comprised of romance, comedy and the correct right dominates over left kind of ideas.

Genre: Romantic Comedy. This genre is evident by the story line, boy meets girl, boy and girl act like they don’t like each other, girl gets another boyfriend, then boy and girl fall in love and live happily ever after. That’s the romantic part. The comedy parts happen all through out the movie, when Abby gets stuck hanging upside down in the tree, the work dinner mishap (not going in to a lot of detail, keeping it friendly, watch the movie to see what happens), when abby and Colin go to a baseball game and she is cleaning drink off of Colin’s lap and it is put up on the big screen because that is not what it looks like she is doing, and many more.

Using the http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GenreTropes, I decided choose the TV show “Friends” as the TV Trope. I choose the romance arc category and then the wrong guy first, reason being Abby got together with Colin first before realizing she actually had feelings Mike. Friends relates to this movie because Rachel chooses Chip over Ross and then end the end she finally chooses Ross! I have never been a huge dedicated fan to this show but from what I have seen, its about couples finding love and living out their lives. Its also considered comedy because of the events that occur in the lives of these characters!