Hey folks, Harry here with Dignan's report of the first Hugh Jackman as Heartthrob for the gals flick. So can Wolverine handle a romantic leading role? Can he make hearts flutter without that Wolvie hair or dangerous animal claw action? Well read and see if he and Ashley Judd make water evaporate and fog up the theater with their hot monkey love... or if there is any hot monkey love for that matter... Read and see...
Hey Harry,
You can call me Dignan. In the Mile High City tonight, I got to see a work print of the new Ashley Judd film, Someone Like You, directed by Tony Goldwyn. We usually don't have these kinds of things here, so I was excited to partake. I hadn't heard of this movie at all, and had no clue who was in it, or what it was about. IMDB shows this as Animal Husbandry, so I guess they changed the title. Now first off let me say, unlike Moriarty, I've never been a big fan of Judd's. I think she's a good actress, but she's never been the driving force for me wanting to see a film she's in. As far as I know, Someone Like You is her first foray into light comedy. Well, after seeing her in this, I was totally charmed! She has great comic timing, and in some of the scenes she's so dang cute, that I wanted to pull a Videodrome, and run up and bury my face in the screen! Every little expression she uses, every roll of the eyes, just magic! She had a little girl vulnerability that I haven't seen her use before, while still being sexy and in control. I hope she continues to show us her funny side. Another reason to see this is Hugh Jackman. But I'll get to him in a moment.
This is what I'd call a "date movie", something with a little romance, a little comedy, and also deals with some kind of relationship between a man and a woman. This can be a tricky genre, very few ever become audience hits like When Harry Met Sally, or While You Were Sleeping. It has to appeal to both halves of the couples. While this didn't strike me as being one of the great ones, I think people will go away content--most of the couples I saw leaving tonight had smiles on their faces.
So, what's it about? Very minor spoilers here. Judd plays Jane Goodale, who books talent for an Oprah-like show hosted by Ellen Barkin's character. Eddie, played by Hugh Jackman, also works behind the scenes, and sleeps with just about anything before moving on to his next conquest. He tells her about a new guy that was just brought in to work on the show, Ray, played by Greg Kinnear. Jane is immediately smitten with Ray. Without giving too much away, she ends up losing her apartment and decides to take up Eddie on his offer for a roommate, much to the chagrin of Ray. The safety in this, is that Jane and Eddie aren't interested in each other anyway. Frustrated with her bad experiences with men, and seeing how they jerk women around, she comes up with a theory of why men act like they do. Her best friend, played by Marisa Tomei, urges her to write up this theory under a pseudonym, which immediately becomes a hit.
The story line here is nothing really new, but the chemistry between Judd and Jackman is great! In their odd couple-like existence, they really zing off one another. One of the funniest scenes in the movie involves him having Judd "cheer" for him in the kitchen--you'll know it when you see it. By the way Harry, this scene may replace Cameron Diaz's Swirling Ass for you. I was totally impressed by Jackman as Wolverine, and once again in this film, he oozes charisma. You can totally see why women would fall for him. In one scene, where he's shirtless, several women in the audience whooped. Then you have Greg Kinnear, who is kind of boring, and at first, I had trouble believing that Jane would fall for him. Then things become clearer, and I thought to myself, this is one of those guys I've met before. You know the one, you have a female friend and she introduces you to her boyfriend, and you wonder what does she see in the guy, he's so boring! That's Ray. Jane's sister and brother-in-law are only in two scenes, and it seems that they were thrown in just to give a plot bump for Jane's character. They should have just combined them with the best friend character played by Tomei, who also had good chemistry with Judd--they even look more alike than the actress playing the sister. In fact for the first part of the film, I thought Tomei was supposed to be Judd's sister. The soundtrack was only temporary, but some of the songs worked really well in the scenes, so I'm curious to see what they will finally use. The film also tries for a kind of quirky feel, with little chapter like titles between scenes, which were kind of amusing, but I overhead some viewers saying they didn't care for it. I guess my main complaint would be that the ending is a little abrupt, like they felt they were running out of time, so wrap it up. Which is what I'll do now, since I'm due back to my cell. Bottom line to go see this--Ashley and Hugh!
Dignan
