One can smell the Meg Ryan and Nora Ephraim essence lingering, though they've obviously left the room long ago, in this film that attempts to expose the commitment phobias of both men and women. If it had been as over the top as its visual emphasis on cattle and its crackpot neofeminist theory, this might have been a laugh-out-loud comedy - with a de-emphasis on the "romantic" part of the genre. By trying to give it a happy (and yet somehow ridiculously predictable) ending, it fails both as romance and comedy.
I can't fault the director for wanting to capitalize on the talents of Ashley Judd, Greg Kinnear, and Hugh Jackman, but the chemistry is non-reactive between Judd and Kinnear, and I suspect the only chemistry I saw in Jackman was the magnetism he wields regardless of the identity of his onscreen partner. Whatever catalyst - whether pure good acting rapport or device of script - was needed to make this film complete never got introduced. Judd seems lost and uneven as the befuddled and dumped Jane, deeply convincing only when she's sad and phoning it in when her character is supposed to be experiencing joy and love. The payoff at the end of the film - which you're expecting within the first 20 minutes - is too long in coming and too abbreviated to be worth the wait. The one true surprise of the film also comes too late to capitalize on the kind of tension and intrigue it might have allowed if revealed earlier.
On the other hand, it's the little touches that made watching the movie fun even while I was knitting my brow at its mistakes. (The very sensitive might consider the following spoilers.) There's nothing subtle about the womanizing Eddie living in a loft above a meat market, but it has its snicker value, as do the various shots of cows all throughout the film, underscoring Jane's "old cow" theory. There are some excellent musical choices, including a very surprising few bars of the Magnetic Fields' quirky ballad "Absolutely Cuckoo". Marisa Tomei's best-friend role is probably meant to provide counterpoint, but she really only succeeds at comic relief. Ellen Barkin is believable and enjoyable as the older, wiser woman of the film, although her viewpoint is relegated to a single speech and we develop an interest in her far too late.
Above all, this movie is watchable for Jackman's Eddie - I am not sure whether it was a choice or serendipity that, through the whole film, we can never quite bring ourselves to dislike him, despite how we are constantly led by the nose to believe we should.
I can't fault the director for wanting to capitalize on the talents of Ashley Judd, Greg Kinnear, and Hugh Jackman, but the chemistry is non-reactive between Judd and Kinnear, and I suspect the only chemistry I saw in Jackman was the magnetism he wields regardless of the identity of his onscreen partner. Whatever catalyst - whether pure good acting rapport or device of script - was needed to make this film complete never got introduced. Judd seems lost and uneven as the befuddled and dumped Jane, deeply convincing only when she's sad and phoning it in when her character is supposed to be experiencing joy and love. The payoff at the end of the film - which you're expecting within the first 20 minutes - is too long in coming and too abbreviated to be worth the wait. The one true surprise of the film also comes too late to capitalize on the kind of tension and intrigue it might have allowed if revealed earlier.
On the other hand, it's the little touches that made watching the movie fun even while I was knitting my brow at its mistakes. (The very sensitive might consider the following spoilers.) There's nothing subtle about the womanizing Eddie living in a loft above a meat market, but it has its snicker value, as do the various shots of cows all throughout the film, underscoring Jane's "old cow" theory. There are some excellent musical choices, including a very surprising few bars of the Magnetic Fields' quirky ballad "Absolutely Cuckoo". Marisa Tomei's best-friend role is probably meant to provide counterpoint, but she really only succeeds at comic relief. Ellen Barkin is believable and enjoyable as the older, wiser woman of the film, although her viewpoint is relegated to a single speech and we develop an interest in her far too late.
Above all, this movie is watchable for Jackman's Eddie - I am not sure whether it was a choice or serendipity that, through the whole film, we can never quite bring ourselves to dislike him, despite how we are constantly led by the nose to believe we should.