Issue date: 4/10/01 Section: Lifestyles

Media Credit: www.someonelikeyoumovie.com

MEDFORD, Mass. (U-WIRE) — At the beginning of the romantic comedy “Someone Like You,” Jane Goodale’s (Ashley Judd) life is finally coming together – she has a high-powered job with a daytime talk show and is in a serious relationship with co-worker Ray Brown (Greg Kinnear). But when Ray dumps his girlfriend without an explanation, Jane is left with nowhere to live and moves in with womanizing friend Eddie Alden (Hugh Jackman) while she tries to figure out what went wrong.

What Jane comes up with is the “New Cow theory,” a singular idea based on the biological imperatives of various male animals. In particular, Jane studies the refusal of bull cows to mate more than once with a female, and concludes that, like cows, men lose interest with women once they’ve been with them. She takes as evidence the dastardly Ray and her fickle housemate Eddie.

Jane shares the theory with her best friend, Liz, (Marisa Tomei), who convinces her to write a column based on the idea. Before long, Jane’s column is syndicated in more than 300 magazines and newspapers across the country, and the anonymous author is an elusive media darling. But as Jane tries to come to grips with Ray’s rejection and gets closer to her friend Eddie, she begins to realize that she may have been looking for happiness in the wrong place entirely.

Based on Laura Zigman’s best-selling book “Animal Husbandry” and directed by Tony Goldwyn (“A Walk on the Moon”), the directing and acting in “Someone Like You” is generally clever — some scenes are downright hilarious. Hearing Jackman tell Judd “I bit myself shaving” to explain a hickey on his neck is worth the price of admission all by itself and is not by any measure his only standout moment in the film.

Judd – primarily known for her roles in action thrillers such as “Kiss the Girls” (1997) – proves to have unerring comedic timing. Pair the two with Kinnear (“As Good as it Gets”), playing the sensitive, slightly sleazy type he does so well, and such supporting actresses as Tomei and Ellen Barkin, and “Someone Like You,” despite its rather ho-hum title, seems destined for success.

That being said, it is only the cast that saves this movie from being genuinely bad. Jackman (“X-Men”’s Wolverine) gives a terrific performance, saving a stereotypical bad-boy character from total oblivion and lending some heart and humanity – as well as hilarity – to an otherwise flat part. Judd is likewise funny and believable as the struggling Jane Goodale.

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