 Following the release of Erin Brockovich , Eckhart co @-@ starred with Renée Zellweger in LaBute 's Nurse Betty ( 2000 ) . He next appeared in Sean Penn 's mystery feature The Pledge ( 2001 ) , in which he played a young detective partnered with a veteran detective , played by Jack Nicholson . The movie received generally favorable reviews , but it did not fare particularly well at the box office . The following year , he collaborated with LaBute in a film adaptation of the Man Booker Prize @-@ winning novel Possession ( 2002 ) . In 2003 , Eckhart co @-@ starred with Hilary Swank in The Core , a film about a geophysicist who tries to detonate a nuclear device in order to save the world from destruction . The film was critically and financially unsuccessful . Also in 2003 , he appeared in The Missing , in which he played Cate Blanchett 's lover , and in the action @-@ thriller Paycheck opposite Ben Affleck . Paycheck , based on a short story by science fiction writer Philip K. Dick , garnered generally negative reception . Film critic Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun @-@ Times gave the film two stars ( out of four ) , saying that he " enjoyed the movie " but felt that it " exploits [ Dick 's story ] for its action and plot potential , but never really develops it . " 
