Someone Like You

What's this? An authentically human romantic comedy without any sign of two-dimensional stereotypes, nose-crinkling cute stock sweethearts or broadly farcical emotional nitwits? Well, beat me with a valentine! Who'd have thunk it? At first glance, Someone Like You, which is based on Laura Zigman's novel Animal Husbandry, may appear to be a formulaic chick flick about a pert, 30-ish career gal (Ashley Judd) who moves in with a womanizing wolf of a co-worker (Hugh Jackman) after being dumped by her boyfriend (Greg Kinnear). But the people that populate this picture are refreshingly genuine and multifaceted, with understandable motives and tangible feelings. Judd plays a perfect mix of bitterness, irony and hope, and she has great chemistry with Jackman, who she uses as a case study in her developing theory about why men are so bad at commitment. Unfortunately, she's a bloody awful narrator and the film falls back on a pathetically mechanical plot device to wrap up its finale. Still, director Tony Goldwyn (A Walk on the Moon) has a knack for cutting through trite artifice to find truth and honesty in his characters, and that pushes this video into the recommended column. (R. Blackwelder)