FARRELLYS DIVE DEEP INTO 'SHALLOW' END.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

The Farrelly brothers try to have it both ways with ``Shallow Hal.'' They pull it off eventually, but doing so requires an awful lot of winning over.

Sort of the ``Life Is Beautiful'' of slob comedies, this latest wacko romance from the ``Something About Mary'' guys wants to convince us that beauty is on the inside, yet makes joke after joke at the expense of obese and homely people. In the end, its heart is in the right place, as are a number of crucial, climactic shot decisions in what is the most fundamentally visual of the Farrellys' comedies.

But many viewers who have felt they were physically unappealing for any serious stretch of their dating lives may not make it that far.

However, if you've got to play on one of the war between the sexes' most nuclear battlefields, it's smart to send out beguiling forces. And the Farrellys could not have chosen better shock troops than Jack Black and Gwyneth Paltrow. He's got enough innate charm to keep his character's boorishness balanced, and she has not only figured out how to maneuver effectively under (ahem) tons of latex, but also how to express the emotional tentativeness of the chronically unloved in every little hesitation, double take and slouch.

What can I say? You've just got to root for this couple.

Depending on your pop-culture preferences, you're either familiar with Black as the aggressively opinionated record store clerk from the movie ``High Fidelity'' or as half of cable TV's hard-rock parody band Tenacious D. (The other D, Kyle Gass, has a small role in this film.) Whichever, you know that this master of heartfelt facetiousness is perfectly cast as superficial Hal Larsen, a luckless makeout man who only sees women for their outward attractiveness and refuses to acknowledge his lack of same. Striking a sympathetic balance between clueless innocence and sheer oinking vile, Hal vaguely perceives that his life isn't working out the way his imagination demands.

Then, by a fortuitous accident (he gets stuck in a broken elevator with selmprovement motivator Tony Robbins), Hal suddenly learns to see people for who they truly are, according to their inner beauty or ugliness ... and to a fault. Suddenly, he starts scoring scads of eager beauties who'd never bother to give him even a wrong number before. Of course, no one else sees these ladies as idealistically as Hal does. And when he truly falls for Rosemary, he only sees our fair Gwyneth while everyone else sees approximately three of her in one.

As you might imagine, this generates a number of misunderstood conversations between the lovebirds, and between Hal and his concerned friends, the most pathetic of whom is played by Jason Alexander. There are sight gags - Hal can't help marveling at Rosemary's amazingly expanding wardrobe, har har - and the predictable helping of tasteless Farrelly humor. And naturally enough, we await and fear the consequences when Hal's eyes inevitably open.

Ever so gradually, though, the brothers build a cheerful argument for a judgment-free look at life. This is naturally the central point of the main story, but it's nicely bolstered by the kind of side business that's helped make Farrelly films rise above the crass comedy norm.

Rene Kirby, a pal of the directors who has spina bifida, makes his screen debut as Hal pal, Walt. He may have to walk on all fours, but he has no trouble coming off, utterly unforced, as the happiest, most well- adjusted person in the entire movie. Similarly, the Farrellys pull off one of the few genuinely touching uses of afflicted children in recent cinema, simply by refusing to milk the kids' potential for red-nosed pathos.

Some have expressed surprise at how sweet they think ``Shallow Hal'' finally turns out to be. There are two good reasons why this should be no surprise at all. One, the Farrellys have always trafficked in gross-out humor with underlying tenderness - this one is just lighter on the former and more obvious with the latter.

And two, well, that's just plain wrong. ``Shallow Hal'' isn't sweet (if it was, it would express concern for Rosemary's physical health rather than just her emotional condition); it only tries to justify ridicule with a movie moralism everyone can admire but many can't practice in life. Praise the boys for making the most distasteful premise they've ever worked as amusingly palatable as it can probably get. But don't let anyone call them sweethearts.

``SHALLOW HAL''

(Rated PG-13: language, sex)

The stars: Jack Black, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jason Alexander, Tony Robbins, Joe Viterelli, Rene Kirby.

Behind the scenes: Directed by Bobby and Peter Farrelly. Written by Sean Moynihan and the Farrellys. Produced by Bradley Thomas, Charles B. Wessler and the Farrellys. Released by 20th Century Fox.

Running time: One hour, 50 minutes.

Playing: Citywide.

Our rating: Three stars