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Summary: "Someone Like You" is a comedic look at romantic
relationships from a woman's point of view after her most vulnerable, painful breakup. In trying to ease the pain, Jane Goodale
studies the mating behavior of males in the animal kingdom. She comes
up with the amusing "New Cow Theory" that is sure to make you
laugh. The movie is thoroughly entertaining with side-splitting humor, and
should not be missed. Though it comes up a little short in the romance
category the humor carries the movie well.
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The Story
Ashley Judd stars as Jane Goodale, a talk show talent
scout who falls in love with the new executive producer Ray Brown (Greg Kinnear).
Jane and Ray plan to move in together and share a new apartment.
Her fairy tale romance comes to an abrupt end, and she is painfully disappointed by his sudden breakup with her. Desperate
to find a new place to live since her apartment has
already been re-rented, Jane settles for sharing an apartment with Eddie Alden (Hugh Jackman),
a fellow producer and known womanizer. Through these rough moments,
Jane unexpectedly finds friendship, compassion, and
support from Eddie.
In her fragile
state, Jane needs to find a reason why Ray has left her so that she doesn't
feel that he has abandoned her just because she is Jane Goodale. In
her efforts to find a logical reason, Jane discovers that less than 5% of
males in all animal species are monogamous.
For a bull, he only mates with a cow he hasn't had before. It is then
that she comes up with the "New Cow Theory", and upon
encouragement from her magazine editor girlfriend (Marisa Tomei) Jane
publishes her theory and assumes an anonymous identity, going by the
ghost-writer name of Dr.
Charles. But Eddie disagrees with her theory and says "these are people, not
cows!" Eddie who also has had a painful breakup with his
girlfriend is cynical and adds:
"Romance, true love, none of that exists.
Trust me, I speak from experience.
Don't underestimate casual sex,
Jane. It's very liberating."
How well will these two living in the same apartment with
such differences opinions be able to overcome their differences? Watch
it and you'll have a "mooing" experience. Truthfully though,
I think "Someone Like You" succeeds more as a comedy than a pure
romantic film. The chemistry between Ashley Judd and her leading men
are rather mixed: the chemistry with one is almost natural, while the
chemistry with the other is somewhat awkward. Fortunately, the comedy
is pretty hilarious and had me laughing pretty hard.
The Extras
"Someone Like You" comes with a good amount of
bonus materials for standard release:
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Audio commentary by director Tony Goldwyn.
Goldwyn discussed his attraction to "Animal Husbandry" and how
he selects his cast and crew. It is unbelievable that he starts
this film back in January 1999 and releasing theatrically in March 30,
2001.
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Featurette highlights the story lines and shows
interactions of the cast and crew. Tony Goldwyn did a great job
with "Someone Like Me" in casting and directing. (5 minutes)
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Seven alternate scenes: the extended scenes are
clearly defined from the original theatrical release by changing from black and white to
color (a nice touch that adds the alternate scenes in context of the
final movie)
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Dinner with Ray Brown where Jane goes along and
orders what Ray orders for himself after he comments about his ex's
vegetarian habit.
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Extended walk
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The real McCoy
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Old cows play dressed up is an extremely amusing
scene and would be entertaining to leave in.
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Waiting
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Ice chips scene shows the tenderness of some male
human.
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Alternate ending which I actually like more than
the theatrical one.
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Theatrical trailer and 5 TV spots
Video & Audio
The image quality of this anamorphic
widescreen DVD is very good. The colors are accurate and
saturated, while shadow detail is good. The Dolby
Digital 5.1 soundtrack is well balanced, though the surround sound
channels are not used very much. The dialog is consistently clear.
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Visit the official Someone
Like You DVD web site, and the Fox
movies web site.
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Associated equipment used in evaluation: Sony
DVP-S7700 reference DVD player, Sony
KP-61V45 61" rear projection TV (4:3 screen aspect ratio), Sony ES STR-V444ES A/V receiver, four
B&W CDM 9NTs as left/right main speakers
and left/right surrounds, B&W CDM CNT center channel speaker, Monster Cable M-series S-Video cable MSV-500, Monster
Cable Interlink LightSpeed 100 (Toslink) optical cable, Monster Cable
Interlink 400 MKII interconnects, Monster Cable
Original speaker cables in bi-wire configuration with Monster Cable twist-on gold-plated banana plug
connectors, Lovan Sovereign T HiFi audio
rack, and Sony MDR-V600 studio monitor headphones. Our home theater equipment was calibrated
with the Video
Essentials DVD.
Be sure to check out our Top 10 DVDs of the year
2001 and our list of this year's Oscar winners on DVD.
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