Animal Attraction film review

certificate_12

ANIMAL ATTRACTION

Television producer Jane Goodale (Judd) seems to have it all: great job, loyal friends and an incendiary romance with dashing executive producer Ray Brown (Kinnear).

Jane's world is turned upside-down when Ray dumps her. In spite, she begins an intimate study of men's mating habits, drawing comparisons between humans and the animal world. Her chief subject is womanizing room-mate Eddie (Jackman), who seems to have a different bed partner every night of the week.

Laden with amusing anecdotes and observations, Jane channels all of her thoughts into penning a sexy newspaper column under a pseudonym for her neurotic best friend Liz (Tomei).

Jane's opinion piece becomes an overnight sensation, a voicebox for millions of put-upon and disgruntled single women.

Animal Attraction wastes little time sign-posting the dream pairing of Jane and Eddie - their romantic coupling is inevitable by the end of the first reel.

The screenplay's central flaw, a fatal one too, is that it doesn't offer enough compelling reasons for these two lonely birds to be together.

When Jane finally gets round to declaring her true love for beefcake Eddie, it comes completely out of the blue, and you are left wondering where all of these feelings came from. Romantic comedies only succeed if you want the lead characters to overcome their differences and to be together.

Here, you just want Eddie and Jane to stop moping around and get a life. Judd looks stunning but lacks the sparkle of some of her more recent films, and Jackman spends a large portion of the film wandering around in just his boxer shorts.

Kinnear is burdened with a thankless supporting role, and Barkin plays her television personality with a mix of bitchiness and insecurity.

However, Tomei shines as the magazine editor who has man troubles all of her own. In fact, she is far more compelling than Judd. Sexual attraction is irrational, exciting and almost overwhelming; Animal Attraction can just about muster irrational. The other two are well beyond its slender grasp.