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There's a sense in which Must Love Dogs must be the longest Meet Cute in the history of film - it more or less lasts through the whole thing.
Sarah meets Jake.
Sarah (Diane Lane) hails from a big family with many sisters and a widowed father Bill (Christopher Plummer). She's fortyish and her husband left because he didn't love her any more. Naturally, she despairs of ever marrying again - it's too cold out there.
Jake, recently divorced, for the love of it builds wooden racing boats by hand which he says manage to "lose beautifully".
Sarah's caring sister Carol (Elizabeth Perkins) sneaks Sarah into the internet dating world. Time after time, under pressure from her sisters, Sarah tries dates. There's the guy who bursts into tears without warning, many others equally fascinating, and, humiliatingly, even Sarah's own father Bill, looking for a little in his life. Eventually he comes up with Dolly (Stockard Channing), a rough-and-tumble who may have a heart of gold.
Finally Sarah meets Jake, and it takes the rest of the film to get them very far. Many things slip in front of their progress, perhaps mostly Bob (Dermot Mulroney), father of a kindergarten pupil of teacher Sarah.
The three best things in Must Love Dogs are Diane Lane, John Cusack and the funny dialog. However, writer/director Gary David Goldberg (many TV series, including Family Ties) has fashioned a vapid story.
Go to it for the chuckles, but don't expect Boris Pasternak's Dr. Zhivago.
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