The movie centers around a local talk show in New York. Ashley Judd plays Jane Goodale (no relation), who is in charge of getting guests for the show. She works with Eddie (Hugh Jackman) a womanizing producer and Ray (Greg Kinnear), the new executive producer. Jane and Ray hit it off immediately. He has a girlfriend so they don't start dating right away but it doesn't take long for him to ditch her for the luscious Judd.

They plan to move in together and go so far as to pick out a new apartment. A gives her landlord notice and starts packing. This is of course a colossally bad idea as Ray shockingly dumps her right before they move in. With nowhere to go, Jane takes Eddie up on an offer to be his new roommate. He has one of those huge studio apartments with intriguing decorations that only appear in movies. Anybody with half a brain can see that Jane and Eddie are going to end up together. But the movie requires that to wait to the very end so we've got some time to kill before that happens.

That time is mostly pretty good. Judd displays a real flair for this type of role. She practically vibrates with cheerful cuteness. Her comic timing is sharp and she seems to have a lot of fun with the role. Greg Kinnear turns in his patented schmarmy act. He does it better than just about anybody right now but I'm beginning to hope for a change of pace. He's too talented to keep doing the same thing over and over again. Hugh Jackman shows enormous charm and a real screen presence. His breakout performance in X-Men clearly was no fluke. Unfortunately all that presence is largely wasted. He is sadly relegated to a fairly minor supporting role. He and Judd have a good chemistry together but they don't share enough screen time to take full advantage of it.

The problems start with Jane's "new cow theory." Based on an article she reads in a newspaper about a scientific study that determines a male cow won't have sex with the same female twice, she generates a similar theory to explain why men keep dumping her. Comparing men to the mating rituals of cows is ridiculously simplistic but that's not the major problem.

The "theory" takes over her whole personality. Formally a cheerful and charming woman, she now becomes whiny and irritating. The shift in personality is fairly abrupt and completely undermines everything that precedes it. It got to a point where I simply couldn't care anymore whether she found happiness or not. I started praying for the inevitable romantic kiss that would seal the relationship and put a merciful end to the story. Unfortunately that kiss just couldn't get there quick enough. Things dragged on and on with no end in sight. Her character seizes on the theory with such ferocity that there is no room left for a real character. The movie could still work with the theory intact but having her become so anal about it wrecked the story.

Judd is good enough at this type of role that she could easily swipe Meg Ryan's title as the queen of romantic comedies. She'll need to pick better scripts than this one though. You might be better off waiting until it hits video. It has solid performances but otherwise offers nothing to make it a must see.

- John Shea

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