Product: Someone Like You [VHS] (2001)
Rating: 5.0
5 stars for Jackman's performance
The three main actors are perfectly cast. Ashley Judd plays Jane just right; a woman obsessed, yet a sympathetic character (who hasn't become obsessed over a breakup?). Greg Kinnear is perfect as the cheating, lying Ray, especially in the scenes where Ray puts a look of exaggerated emotion on his face, in an attempt to make himself believable.When Jane moves in with Eddie, arguments are sparked over their respective attitudes towards relationships, but they have no problem coexisting in the same space. There are no arguments over cleaning the kitchen/bathroom/living room, no sniping about who left the front door unlocked, none of the usual friction that occurs between roommates, especially when one of them has lived in the apartment for some time and the other one is a newcomer.Eddie and Jane, obviously, have different approaches to being dumped. Jane bemoans her fate and tries to find a reason for Ray's behavior in her books about animals. Eddie doesn't look for reasons, doesn't wait for his ex to magically return, and doesn't get into another relationship immediately. We don't know how long it's been since his girlfriend left him, but we know that his grief was so strong, he took an axe and chopped a hole in the wall of his spare room. Very powerful stuff for a man who's supposed to be unable to stay with one woman.One of the reasons the movie works is that the two main characters learn from each other in recovering from their breakups. Eddie, in particular, draws in his own pain to help Jane with hers. "It's over! Over! Why can't you just let it go?" he asks her.The real ace here is Hugh Jackman as Eddie, initially regarded by Jane as simply a womanizer, the stuff of legend around the office. Jackman faces a very difficult task in making Eddie not only believable, but sympathetic. The "womanizing coworker" has been done to death in film; Jackman's carefully shaded performance makes Eddie a real person. Eddie is never seen ogling a strange woman on the street, bragging about his sexual conquests, or behaving in any way as though he thinks he's superior to the women he beds night after night. There's nothing sleazy about him, and that's amazing.Jackman successfully walks a fine line here; the movie is worth it for his performance alone. I wish they'd left the other ending, the one you can see on the DVD. It's much better and it really sizzles, making full use of the chemistry between the two leads.