Animal Attraction

Jane (Ashley Judd) has a theory about cattle. Most guys know it by heart.

A bull is brought to a cow. It performs, as it should. It is brought to the cow again the next day. It's not interested. Why?

"It wants new cow."

Wanting new cow is what this movie is about and being an attractive modern woman, with an interesting job and a nice apartment in New York apparently isn't enough for some guys. Eddie (Hugh Jackman) understands this. Getting laid is his thing. He's good at it. Jane hates such an emotionally bereft attitude. It offends her femininity.

They work together on the Diane Roberts Show. "It's all about the get," she is told. "The ungettable get." This means persuading a person who doesn't want to talk on television to talk on television. Or rather, talk to Diane (Ellen Barkin).

Jane has energy and determination. She's bright, too. Ray Brown (Greg Kinnear), a new producer on the show, agrees and starts dating her. He has a girlfriend, who is, well, on hold. Jane falls for his charm. She hears herself saying, "I was just thinking how good my apartment looked with you in it."

And then she discovers the new cow theory.

As a romantic comedy, this slips into the smile zone easier than you might expect, mainly because of Judd and Elizabeth Chandler's script. The actor, Tony Goldwyn, directs with a light touch. The story has a reality feel to it, as if the author of the original novel, Laura Zigman, knows about being dumped. In some ways, this is a revenge movie, a revenge against men. To hell with animal instincts, she's saying, what about the poor cow?