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Buy Someone Like You on DVD! | Buy Someone Like You on VHS!
Some
people go to unreasonable lengths to rationalize
their romantic failures. Isn’t that why
astrology and fortune-tellers are so popular? In Someone
Like You, lovely Ashley Judd plays one of
these misguided individuals. Frequently dumped,
her character develops a ridiculous idea called
“The New Cow Theory” as a way of explaining
why men leave women. I know what you’re
thinking. Men dumping the charming Judd? That does
take quite a suspension of disbelief, but the
delightful actress makes this quirky role work for
her.
Ably
assisted by Hugh Jackman as her womanizing room-
mate and Greg Kinnear as her latest ex, Judd turns
in her best performance since Simon
Birch. Her portrayal of Jane Goodale, a talent
booker for a popular television talk show, reveals
the Double
Jeopardy star’s previously unknown flair for
comedy. Judd is surprisingly funny, especially
when dictating a bio for the nonexistent
scientist/author Jane pretends to be. “Dr. Marie
Charles (her pseudonym) is a co-founder of the
Institute for Pathological Narcissism,” our
heroine begins --- with an impish grin that tells
us we’re in for a fun ride.
Displaying
the same powerful charisma that won him rave
reviews as Wolverine in X-Men, Jackman simply ignites the
screen in all his scenes. I predict great things
for this handsome Australian actor. Playing Eddie,
a man hurt once who tries to stop his emotional
pain with casual sex (Jane refers to him as “The
Poster Bull”), Jackman projects macho magic
tempered with a streak of sensitivity. Any woman
who can resist him, particularly in a scene
showing Eddie just holding Jane all night to
comfort her, should resign from Romantics
Anonymous. Waking first, he gently smells her
hair, looks longingly at her for a brief moment,
then pretends to be asleep --- thus creating one
of the year’s most tender film moments.
Oscar-nominee
Kinnear (for As
Good As It Gets) completes the love triangle
as Ray, an executive producer who breaks Jane’s
heart. While he’s excellent in this type of
role, Kinnear needs to branch out and do something
more challenging for a change --- something more
like his egocentric superhero in Mystery
Men. (He was the only one worth watching in
that bomb.) Still, Kinnear’s Ray emerges as a
perfect contrast to Jackman’s Eddie. Ray ‘s
problem with over-commitment and his inability to
go the distance seem believable because of
Kinnear’s expert interpretation of this
character. With his clean-cut good looks and
intense facial expressions, Ray can’t help
attracting women, and Kinnear makes it easy to
understand Ray’s appeal to the opposite sex.
Among
the supporting cast, Marisa Tomei (Oscar-winner
for My
Cousin Vinny) and Ellen Barkin (Drop
Dead Gorgeous) do themselves proud as Jane’s
wisecracking best friend and ambitious boss
respectively. Tomei delivers one of the movie’s
most biting lines when she consoles Jane by
reminding her “Time wounds all heels.” And
Barkin exudes nervous energy in the role of a
high-powered talk-show host.
Someone
Like You benefits from a witty script by
Elizabeth Chandler (The
Little Princess) who adapted it from Laura
Zigler’s novel Animal
Husbandry. It’s only flaw is a rushed ending
that requires the leading lady to renounce her
theory without sufficient explanation. Deftly
directed by Tony Goldwyn (A
Walk on the Moon), this romantic comedy
concludes with a message similar to the one in When Harry Met Sally, a 1989 classic
that emphasized the importance of being good
friends before becoming lovers. Twelve years
later, that’s still sound advice.
(Released
by 20th Century Fox and rated
“PG-13” for sexual content including dialogue
and for some language.)
Buy Someone Like You on DVD! | Buy Someone Like You on VHS!
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