paulclaassen Oh, how delightful! I absolutely love this movie! It is so genuine and unpretentious. Good, solid storytelling and acting, and wonderfully funny. This is pure magic. This was the film time I saw Hugh Jackman, and I've been hooked since then...on this movie AND on Hugh Jackman! This remains one of my favorite Hugh Jackman films and also one of my favorite movies. Absolutely bloody fantastic, mate!

lisafordeay Before Hugh Jackman became the Hollywood Superstar that he is today and became known to Comic Book fans as Wolverine from the X-Men franchise,he starred in this Australian Romantic Comedy where he plays a handsome truck driver named Jack who has a secret. He loves writing romantic novels and since no one wants to hear of a man writing a romantic novel he used his best friend's name Ruby Vale to keep up his fascade. But later in the film we meet a woman named Ziggy who wants Ruby to go to Sydney to talk about the book that she was suppose to write unaware its really Jack that wrote it,so Jack and Ruby decide to go to Sydney to promote the book but when they spend some time together Jack falls for his best friend Ruby.But how long will this fascade last for and does Ziggy smell a rat and has a thing for Jack and will Jack admit that he loves Ruby despite the fact she is getting married to someone else?Now the only Australian film I seen Jackman in was Australia with Nicole Kidman and seeing him use his own accent in this film was a delight. Also he was rather young this time. I enjoyed this movie as its incredibly underrated and we get to hear Jackman sing Crying with his female co-star. Bottom line if you never heard of Jackman and you are new to him,well be my guest and check him out in his film debut from his hometown before he starred in big budget films in Hollywood and became one of Hollywood's attractive leading men and a versatile actor. I became a fan of Hugh Jackman since Kate & Leopold and the original X-Men movies not to mention his my favorite celeb crush too as his a very handsome man.My advice just find the movie Paperback Hero and check it out. It reminded me of that film Hugh Jackman starred in next to Ashley Judd Someone Like You only a male version of that film.7/10

bob the moo Jack is a trucker in the Australian outback who makes regular stops in the outback café where Ruby Vale hangs out. Ruby is engaged to Jack's best mate. Things get complicated when a publisher comes to the outback café to see the author and Jack has to explain that he has written a romantic novel and used to name to hide his identity. With the publisher none the wiser the two set out for the city together to promote his novel through her. However the time together puts Ruby's engagement under threat.I watched this mostly because Hugh Jackman's new found status as a star brought it to my attention. The plot is quite good and has a reasonable amount of potential but the film doesn't really manage to do very much with it. It lacks a spark in the film as a whole to really get it going.Jackman is part of the spark and has a certain amount of charisma but he isn't enough to bring the film to life. No – it needed something more. The concealment of the truth in the first half is quite good but the romance and more serious tone in the second half is a lot heavier and doesn't totally work. Karvan is quite feisty and does well but her and Jackman don't have the necessary type of chemistry – they hit it off as a knockabout pair but not in the romantic sense.The film has a certain charm to it but it didn't really do anything for me other than pass the time. It's hard to define but it seemed lacking in some humour, some genuine romance and a relationship that I really wanted to get behind. Passable and has potential but lacking in a certain something.

playingtrix This is a great, sweet movie. Hugh Jackman and Claudia Karvan are wonderful in this lighthearted, funny, romantic film. I loved the fact that the two main characters in this movie do not follow the stereotypes for their genders and yet both characters still seem real. The friendship between Jack and Ruby is wonderful and I think it's great to see characters who are friends before they become romantically involved.A simple but very entertaining film that I will watch again and again.