Hmmmm Fred, you had me up until American Beauty.

To me that movie was a fine exploration of character, acted brilliantly. I don't think a moral was intended, certainly not according to the director, whose commentary on the DVD I very much enjoyed!

The Farreley Bros. DID intend that Shallow Hal preach about "inner beauty". I know this because they said so in their commentary. To me they lost a lot of credibility with the bit where the child gets splashed out of the pool. Then again, they needed jokes like that to get their target audience to pay attention.