Must Love Dogs
Starring John Cusack, Diane Lane
Written and Directed by Gary David Goldberg


In order to love “Must Love Dogs” you must first love romantic comedies. If you take guilty pleasure in watching romantic comedies like myself (yes, I am a guy) then you will most certainly find Must Love Dogs a worthwhile watch. Yes, yes -- I know you’re saying that romantic comedies are so predictable and unrealistic and full of baloney -- but I along with a million other people happen to love this kind of baloney.

Gary David Goldberg (writer, Spin City) serves a nice hot platter of John Cusack and Diane Lane based on the popular novel by Claire Cook. John Cusack (Say Anything...) plays Jake, a hopeless romantic who’s fresh off a divorce and longs for the days of romance in the vein of Doctor Zhivago. He builds hand crafted boats that represent a more chivalrous time and hopes that one day they will sail in the hands of someone who loves them as much as he loved crafting them. Played by any other actor, the character of Jake would be utterly unbelievable. However, lucky for movies like this, the world has John Cusack. Females around the world will always know John Cusack best as Lloyd Dobler, the optimistic teen who made an entire generation of girls swoon. So, needless to say that the moment John Cusack steps into a film like this -- the general audience is already behind him to win the girl.

Don’t worry guys. I know a lot of you will end up seeing Must Love Dogs primarily because of the “either you take your girlfriend or you end up not getting any” rule -- but don’t despair for you won’t be left completely out of the picture. Diane Lane. Don’t play dumb, you know her from “Unfaithful” (the movie where she gets naked a lot), plays Sarah, a messed up divorcee looking to get back into the dating game with the help of dating websites (ie. Perfectmatch.com) and a million nagging relatives that won’t let her be single.

Chemistry. The one saving grace for any romantic comedy. Bad script? Bad director? Low Budget? Nothing matters as long your two leads have chemistry and John Cusack and Diane Lane definitely have it. They are absolutely adorable together, but of course you know that they can’t be together right away. Why? Because it’s a romantic comedy, remember?! Lucky for us the movie manages to come up with some great scenarios to keep our star crossed lovers apart. Again, the fun in romantic comedies is always the journey. The misunderstandings, the love triangles, the witty banter -- Must Love Dogs exceeds expectations in all categories.

With the help of a well rounded supporting cast including the likes of Christopher Plummer as Sarah’s womanizing, yet sincere father, to Dermot Mulroney playing the handsome guy who distracts Sarah from fulling giving in to Jake -- the supporting cast does a wonderful job creating a world where everyone is just looking for a little love. Stockard Channing also manages to muster out a few touching moments as one of Sarah’s father’s many women.

Like what “When Harry Met Sally” did for a generation of male and female “best friends” looking for love in the early 90s, Must Love Dogs does the same for the internet dating generation. The film opens and closes with a very When Harry Met Sallyesque type of feel. In the beginning of the film, singles give advice in seemingly candid interviews about the best places to find other singles with acronyms like SWF or DWF underneath them. And in the end we have couples sharing their cutesy stories on how they met. (No, I did not spoil the ending of the movie -- you know what is going to happen.) The film also does a great job of showing us how fun and unpredictable the world of online dating is with all the lies and false profiling that happens daily.

Must Love Dogs will not be the most original film you will see this year or maybe even the next year, but it will be a lot of fun. And hey, what more could you ask from a date?


THE RUNDOWN:

The Good: John Cusack and Diane Lane are great, giving this dog of a movie a bone to chew on.

The Bad: It is a romantic comedy like many others before it.

The Law: It’s a great date movie and will surprise you here and there.