We all know that men and women don't always think alike. When it comes romance and relationships, it seems that the divide between male and female perspectives couldn't get any wider. The question is: if men and women see romance so differently, how in the world do we ever manage to get on the same page? And the movie that tries to answer that question this summer: The Ugly Truth.

At the center of The Ugly Truth is Abby Richter (Katherine Heigl), a beautiful and successful morning radio show producer whose only failing seems to be her inability to hold down a man. In an amusing opening sequence that captures the chaos and comedy of putting on a morning show, we see that Abby is a woman who knows how to take charge and who is all about using what she knows to get exactly what she wants. The problem: when that same behavior follows her from work to date.

Cue one of the movie's funnier scenes in which Abby starts methodically cataloging the ways her date doesn't live up to his profile before their drinks have even arrived. Follow it up with a late-night call into Mike Chadway's (Gerard Butler) cable access show The Ugly Truth in which Abby argues that there's more to hooking a man than having a model's body and a porn star's skill-set. And set into motion a faceoff between a woman's view of love and a man's take on lust when Mike not only joins the cast of Abby's show, but makes a deal with Abby that if his logic does not get her the man of her dreams, he will quit.

While promising and amusingly entertaining at the get go, unfortunately, The Ugly Truth is really no more than a contrived collection of amusing situations that fail to add up to much of any sum. However, despite its weak development and unconvincing chemistry, through its story are still delivered several truths that are worth thinking about.

Continue: 1 2