Someone Like You... (2001)

Excellent but underrated film

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Someone Like You (2001): Dir: Tony Goldwyn / Cast: Ashley Judd, Hugh Jackman, Greg Kinnear, Marisa Tomei, Ellen Barkin: Very dull romantic comedy about individuality. Ashley Judd uses a lame cow theory to dissect her failed relationships. She users her co-worker played by Hugh Jackman to demonstrate this theory. She gets involved with Greg Kinnear who cannot commit to her even after a three year relationship. The conclusion is every bit as boring. Directed by Tony Goldwyn who previously made A Walk on the Moon and does his best with this lame material. Judd is unable to make this woman look intelligent. She comes across as the kid who always had "kick me" signs on their back and had no idea. Jackman's role consists of him getting drunk and having sex with a different woman. Perhaps that is his only benefit for doing this travesty. Kinnnear is a fine actor caught in a routine and dull role. Marisa Tomei makes what amounts to an agonizing appearance. She has done better and hopefully will so again. Even casting Ellen Barkin in this garbage cannot elevate it beyond someone more interesting than watching paint dry. Its take on relationships falters due to its pathetic juvenile delivery. Perhaps Goldwyn should check out a bunch of Woody Allen films before tackling this issue again. Foolish dog show that should be locked away and buried…by someone like you. Score: 2 / 10

Jane Goodale (Ashley Judd) and unromantic heartbroken Eddie Alden (Hugh Jackman) are busy booking red meat for Diane Roberts (Ellen Barkin)'s daytime talk show. Ray Brown (Greg Kinnear) is the new executive producer coming from serious news. Liz (Marisa Tomei) is her best friend. Despite her reservations and his girlfriend of 3 years, she begins to go out with Ray. She leaves her apartment to move in with Ray but he breaks it off with her. She's forced to move in with Eddie. That's when she comes up with the New Cow Theory after reading a New York Times article. Bulls always like to have the new cow. Liz persuades Jane to write an article under a pen name. The article explodes and everybody is looking to interview the mystery doctor including Diane Roberts.The good news is that Ashley Judd is lovely and she's giving it all to be in a light rom-com. It's pretty light and not that funny. It's not really breaking any new ground with the single gal genre. The two leads Judd and Jackman are so likable and super hot that it keeps the movie from collapsing entirely. Greg Kinnear makes a nice douche turn but the question becomes why does she still care about him. This is generally not funny enough and not compelling enough. If not for the likable leads, there would be nothing to this.

I usually put high score on the films, so 6 is pretty low score, and I'm telling you this film deserves it.If you pick each actor/actress's works, they are just fine, they did good works. but IMHO somehow they are miscasted. Especially "the combination of the casts" is terrible in this film. For example, Keanu Reeves is a terrible actor alive on the planet, but in the film "Sweet Nobember" Keanu Reeves and Charlie Theron made a miracle, they are so good together and the combination of these two are great, so I liked that film. But in this film "Someone Like You" I didn't feel something special between Ashley Judd and Greg Kinnear or Ashley Judd and Hugh Jackman. It seems to me they just did their job, so even if every single of them did a good job, a whole movie is fail.Also it seems to me the movie is all about girl's feeling. How horrible men treat the girls, and ending of the movie is little too cheesy.But Don't Get Me Wrong. This movie is not terrible at all, some people might even love it. This is just not my thing.

I saw this film for the first time this evening, and kept waiting for the enjoyment to commence. Unfortunately it didn't. I agree with those among the many comments here who were disappointed in this flick.I like Judd, Jackman, Kinnear and Barkin -- and have enjoyed all of them in other efforts. Seeing them listed in the same cast (having missed this picture completely when it was issued originally) I expected a pleasurable couple of hours.I liked very little about it. I didn't enjoy the characters or performances. I didn't enjoy the stories. The cost was listed in another source I checked as $23,000,000. In this instance, with this group, this was a waste of money almost criminal.