A Review by Phil Calabro
2005, Warner Brothers, Dir. Gary David Goldberg – Starring Diane Lane, John Cusack, Elizabeth Perkins, Dermot Mulroney, Chris topher Plummer, Stockard Channing, Ali Hillis, Brad Henke, Julie Gonzalo, Glenn Howerton, Ben Shenkman, Jordana Spiro, Kirk Trutner, Victor Webster
Rattled divorcee looking for love through the internet. Nosy family trying to set her up with a new beau. 'This Will Be' by Natalie Cole playing in the preview. Can we say Lifetime Original Movie, or what? I've got nothing against chick flicks, but I'm surprised that Warner Brothers figured this movie would fare well during the summer – it seems out of place amongst the loud blockbusters crowding up the screens. But that's not half the problem – 'Must Love Dogs' is less than satisfactory in its genre, just another disposable love story to go along with every other movie Diane Lane has starred in. There are some likeable performances by John Cusack and Chris topher Plummer, but you realize halfway through the movie you don't care about any of them. It's a lazy, indulgent movie that requires a large tub of ice cream and a rough day at work to enjoy – sluggish but occasionally snappy writing, hackneyed story, and a waste of John Cusack's time and talent.
Sarah Nolan (Lane) has just been through a tumultuous divorce, and has yet to recover from it – and has yet to understand why her husband left her in the first place. Her enormous family, headed by father Bill (Plummer) and sister Carol (Perkins) want her to find a man, claiming that the more she wallows in self-pity, the worse off she'll be. The options keep coming, but Sarah is determined to find Mr. Right by herself. One of her possibilities is Bill Connors (Mulroney), a recent divorcee himself whose pre-schooler son is taught by Sarah. Bill woos Sarah, but she remains weary of her loving capabilities. Meanwhile, Carol posts Sarah's profile on PerfectMatch.com, where a handsome boat-crafter named Jake Anderson (Cusack) – also a divorcee – shows interest in meeting Sarah. After the second date, they hit it off incredibly. Sarah is attracted to Jake's sense of wit, and Jake feels something important between them. But when Jake learns that she had a fling with Bill, Sarah is left with some decisions and explaining to do.
It's become just as easy to stereotype a divorced woman than any other single woman looking for love, so Diane Lane's performance isn't the least bit exceptional. She looks frustrated and tired, but when it's not that, she's just downright bland. I don't feel any of her pain because she doesn't put any effort into doing so – she assumes looking pretty and reciting all her funny lines is going to do some good, and it just fails. John Cusack gives a worthy performance as Jake Anderson, a misunderstood man who just wants to sell the boats he builds. Probably the best move that director Goldberg did was let Cusack develop his own character – he wrote his own lines after reading the script (God forbid what the original script looked like, Cusack's writing is the saving grace.) He plays an innocent, sweet caring young man who actually gives a damn about the other characters – he's not just the hollow shell of the masculine gender that movies are so keen to describe (better yet, Dermot Mulroney's character is a perfect example of one – as bland as day-old flan) Christopher Plummer has a ball playing an old playboy patriarch, and adds a warm charm to the final product.
I demand that the editor of this movie be fired immediately. Here we have an example of sloppy and tired transitions that flip from one worst-case scenario to the other, without allowing the audience to even soak it in. This is part of the reason why Dermot Mulroney's character is so dreadful to watch – we watch him be a cheerful looking father, but the next second we see him in the most unrealistically despicable mood possible. Mood swings may be easier and make the movie quicker to watch, but they aren't always acceptable. We watch Diane Lane switch from date to date without any real affect taking place – it grinds the potential emotion into mincemeat for the audiences to forget about. The point of a love story is to place us in between the action, to watch the two partners learn each others strengths and weaknesses, to take the good with the bad and learn to love each because of these factors. 'Must Love Dogs' assumes that since one contender is written out of the script, the alternative is to take the next worthy opponent – a shallow and inappropriate turn of events.
In these dog days of summer movies, 'Must Love Dogs' should stay locked in the cage along with all the others. This has absolutely nothing to do with dogs – with the mild exception that dogs are featured in the movie – but otherwise it's just another big prop set up for Diane Lane to exercise her limited 'chick flick' acting talents. There's very little more to see than this.
