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Show WASATCH COUNTY COURIER APRIL 4, 2001 B3 REVIEW - Romantic "Someone ‘nite the Salt Lake Tibane Deseret News and the Wasatch Wave. Resuscitation Like You ee ek 1/2 STARS when “ne refers to the eri pete ing reputation of co-worker Eddie REACH YOUR AUDIENCE. ADVERTISE Alden (Hugh Jackman) with a verbal DIRECTED BY TONY GOLDWYN. WRITTEN BY ELIZABETH CHANDLER; BASED ON THE NOVEL, ANIMAL HUSBANDRY, BY LAURA > ZIGMAN; STARRING ASHLEY JUDD, HUGH JACKMAN, GREG KINNEAR, MARISA TOMEI AND ELLEN BARKIN. Review by Paul Swenson whose’ name resembles that of the scientist known for her work with primates (made explicit here for a reason so silly it’s not worth mentioning), is aromantic refugee from the dat- ing game. She’s essentially given up, having been dumped by one too many ‘her life is intended to herald what she believes is romantic salvation. But in one of Kinnear’s lamest performances, Brown has the presence of a male mannequin draped in an expensive suit and an over-bright smile—he’s an obvious lightweight. | 7 No problem, Jane falls like aton of bricks. After the relationship pre- | _ dictably implodes Jane resigns her apartment lease just as Ray dis-invites her to move in and returns to the woman he had kept on hold), a strange thing happens. The script gets tighter and zippier; the characters get brain transplants (not top-of-the-line cerebral tissue, but gray matter, predatory males. So to explain her cirnonetheless), the acting gains energy, | cumstance to herself, she invents a theand Jane decides she can cohabit with ory based on bovine behavior: a world-class lothario (Eddie) without In brief, it boils down to the dubi- | losing her cool or her self-respect. ous factoid that bulls won’t breed with _ The sparring between Eddie and the same cow more than once, prefer_ Jane, who watches—with anthropologring to methodically sample ae herd, ical interest—the steady parade of © one after another. women in and out For Jane, it’s no leap of his bedroom to conclude — that from her literal ~ human males are no of interest Come and try a new Kubtota on for size. Khor whoa 345 North Main Street, Heber City * 654-1561 SAM - 5PM Monday - Friday what sharpens the picture’s perspec- in , 1 O20. 9-1 e 5m: monogamy. | — OUTEGROWN YOUR TRACTOR? hole-in-the-wall space, is part of consider- ing their observable lack Valley Kubota | it's as if feminism had never existed. her co-workers also seem to be in a fog, particularly Ray Brown (Greg Kinnear), Jane’s new executive producer, whose sudden appearance in P| mopes around likea little girl for the first reel, different, (801) 654- 2661 Wasatch County’s Source for News bobs and weaves to disguise that noth- rm the way the main character, Jane Goodale, _ same way as a bobblehead doll—Judd _ Midway, UT MMT can’t be called post-feminist, since in Judd), 210 East Main Street Meni Like -Youisa very peculiar movie. It (Ashley WASATCH COUNTY ing is going on in a scene. Several of ony Goldwyn’s Someone Goodale a slut” (wink, wink). Jane is aipnosed to be funny and cute but she’s animated in much the | 7 jab in the ribs “You’re such tive. At work, when he can’t disguise a hickey on his neck Screwy, eh? But . think about it. It’s a | hypothesis no more | the size of Saskatchewan, Eddie deadpans to Jane, “I bit myself shaving.” Jackman, hairy and desultory _cockeyed than Men _ Hugh Jackman and Ashley Judd in Are From Mars, Someone Like You. Women Are From Venus, the cracked pop psychological --who was the movement which continues to sell the - Wolverine in last year’s inadvertently old chestnut that men and women are ridiculous X-Men, is just an old-fashessentially different species from difioned wolf in Someone Like You, whose ferent planets. (Its latest wrinkle is a compulsive womanizing is a pose to vapidly straight-faced TV show.) So, yes, it may be possible, as the camouflage the wit and warmth movie suggests, that millions of people would eagerly seize the bull that Goodale peddles in a best-selling what confusing to watch a movie wake Instead, the credibility problems | thrilling and some- out of its stupor and become relatively . entertaining after a comatose start ~ (not just a few characters, as in The Awakening, but the whole darn shoot- — ing match). I don’t know exactly what to attribute the transformation to, and and actors whose line readings have it’s not as if the movie becomes brilno rhythm and no bite liantly funny. But it does become mode Judd as Jane (ostensibly a smart, : erately amusing. assertive career woman with years in Goldwyn, once an actor and nowa Manhattan’s urban jungle, where she director, whose first film, 1999’s A books talent for a TV interview show) Walk On the Moon, was seamless and seems so soft-headed early on we almost flawless, may simply be experimight as well be watching a Briley encing sophomore jitters with Spears commercial. Someone Like You. Two cheers that it are elsewhere. They reside in a sappy screenplay, anesthetized characters She burbles her romantic disillu- OPEN EVERY DAY. EXCEPT TUESDAY FOR DINNER. Taking reservation for 5:30-9:30pm | Sunday Brunch I lam-3pm Introducing our new chef ROBERT CUBBERLY - from San P ancices: eventually gains its footing, and that sion to friend Liz, a magazine journal.Judd and Jackman salvage some ist; is too distracted in staff meetings | moments in the last reel—not to mento brief her boss Diane Roberts (Ellen tion snatching their own modest Barkin) on her pursuit of Fidel Castro; respectability from the jaws of a loomand thinks she’s making witty reparing debacle. | - Visit with us in our newly tectodeled dining room enjoying: our new menu and beautiful atmosphere. | CALL FOR RESERVATION S AT (435) 654.0892 ee eens she pretends is a reputable scientist. It’s vaguely that | saith tatnig porn book, written under a pseudonym that — exposure to Jane reveals. |