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Must Love Dogs (12A)

added 19 September 2005 at 15.09

Must Love Dogs reads like it should be a guaranteed success: a lightweight feel-good comedy adapted from a popular novel with well-liked star names. So how come it ends up a dog's dinner?

Diane Lane (Unfaithful, Under The Tuscan Sun) plays Sarah Nolan, a recently divorced thirty-something teacher who is persuaded by her family that, after eight months of post-divorce wallowing, she really needs to get out there and start dating again. To give her a push in the right direction her sister kindly posts an online ad on her behalf which promises: "Voluptuous, sensuous, alluring and fun” along with the deal-breaking condition, ''Must love dogs''.

A series of supposedly ‘hilarious’ dates ensue as Sarah meets one mismatch after another and even ends up on a blind date with her dad.  Running parallel to Sarah’s dating trials and tribulations, we see Jake (John Cusack) having exactly the same problem. An idealistic boat builder (he only uses real wood, not that second-rate fibreglass) – Jake is a brooding romantic who believes in love with a passionate intensity. Scalded by a searing divorce himself, he sits around watching Dr Zhivago and dreams of finding his own Lara.

Sarah and Jack finally meet at a dog park and thus the crux to this sorry tale is revealed: neither of them actually own dogs but borrow them from their friends and family to go on dates.

With Sarah and Jake getting on famously from the get-go, it’s usually at this point in a rom-com that the whole thing ups a gear and the two lovers find themselves awkwardly separated before they come together in a passionate, yet funny, heart-warming ending. However with Must Love Dogs this isn’t the case. Instead director Gary David Goldberg relies on the love-triangle route as Sarah has a brief encounter with yet another recent divorcee and the father of one of her students Bobby (Dermot Mulroney). Naturally he is everything Jake is not: charming, relaxed, the perfect guy. But is he all that he seems?

Any successful romantic comedy relies on chemistry between the characters and sadly Cusack and Lane fail to spark. Even with two men on the go, Sarah doesn’t get her act together; various laboured twists and turns that don’t really go anywhere just prevent the film from Sarah sorting herself out and the whole thing ending sooner than it should.

 

The film is also weighted down by pointless sub-plots - we have to share the grief of Sarah's dad (Christopher Plummer) who, following the death of his wife, turns to the Internet to pursue romance. Enter Dolly, played by Grease star Stockard Channing as a cookie, blowsy blonde. Dad, who is in his 70s claims to be 50 while Dolly, clearly more than a trifle over 50, claims to be 40. The internet is a breeding ground for liars it seems and there ends that lesson.

Dull and predictable, Must Like Dogs is a tiring exercise. Even the actors playing out their romantic mishaps on screen seem to know it’s all going to end on a happy note and their performances arise to mere motions to get there.

Must Love Dogs also comes down hard on singletons, portraying them as unhappy, badly dressed losers who mope about wrapped in duvets and binge on ice cream. Not even Bridget Jones had it this bad. If you’re looking for love or a date movie, Must Love Dogs won’t raise your spirits or fill you with any sort of anticipation that the romantic action on screen could just happen to you. In fact the duvet and ice-cream action just seems that much more appealing and entertaining. It will also ultimately prove more satisfying that watching this dross. Avoid.

See the official website for more info

http://www2.warnerbros.com/mustlovedogs/index.html

Must Love Dogs is released nationwide from Friday September 16

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