Someone Like You

Directed by Tony Goldwyn
Starring: Ashley Judd, Hugh Jackman, Greg Kinnear, Marisa Tomei, Ellen Barkin.
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sexual content including dialogue, and for some language.

Review by Matt Heffernan <matt@filmhead.com>
April 18, 2001

Here's another half-assed review for another mediocre film. Someone Like You came out during the same weekend as Tomcats, and failed just as miserably. At least this film could have had an audience.

Laura Zigman's novel Animal Husbandry was quite successful, due to its simplistic application of evolutionary psychology to modern human relationships. For a couple years, the film adaptation was in development and received a good deal of publicity. By January of 2001, everybody knew that Ashley Judd was making a film called Animal Husbandry. So what did Fox do? They made sure that nobody would see it by changing the only interesting thing about the film: its title. With the bland moniker Someone Like You, it was destined for failure.

Basically, Judd hooks up with Greg Kinnear, a co-worker, and they decide to move in together. After she gives up the lease on her old place, they break up, and she has to turn to her other co-worker: the womanizing Hugh Jackman. While living with the lothario, she reads up on cattle breeding (with a name like Jane Goodale, she was destined to study zoology). She writes an anonymous article about the New Cow Theory: a bull will only mate with a heifer once -- wham, bam, thank you, Bessie. Luckily, Jackman is there to prove the theory wrong when applied generally to men, and she falls in love with him. The last shot in the film is their first kiss. If that was a spoiler for you, I ban you from my site on grounds of stupidity.

Nothing about Someone Like You was offensive, other than the fact that it wasn't really funny. Generally, a comedy should have a few laughs. The warm sentimentality may be enough to placate some people, but it is a worthless film for anybody with taste. It's just another assembly-line Hollywood production filled with cute people turning in cute performances. Basically, it was like Tomcats without the false advertising or Bill Maher trying to kill anybody.

Here's some merchandise for sale at

Someone Like You (2001)	-- VHS
Someone Like You (2001)	-- DVD
Animal Husbandry, a novel by Laura Zigman	-- Hardcover
Animal Husbandry, a novel by Laura Zigman	-- Paperback
Animal Husbandry, a novel by Laura Zigman	-- Audio Cassette (read by Chelsea Adams)
Someone Like You: Soundtrack	-- Compact Disc

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