Image Courtesy of Amazon.com
Director:
Gary David Goldberg
Cast:
Diane Lane……….Sarah
John Cusack……….Jake
Elizabeth Perkins……….Carol
Christopher Plummer……….Bill
Dermot Mulroney……….Bob
Stockard Channing……….Dolly
The Movie
The thing about romantic comedies is that there’s always a happily ever after. There’s always a pair of young twenty-somethings that meet, fall in love, go through some “hilarious” implications and eventually go on to presumably happily ever after. But what happens five years later?
That’s where we meet up with Sarah (Diane Lane) and Jake (John Cusack), they’re both recent divorcees from what was supposed to be happily ever after. In their mid-30s and the ink fresh on their divorce papers, life’s a bit interesting as they go back into the dating world.
Jake builds wooden ships and enjoys Doctor Zhivago. His wife left him due to a lack of communication, it seems; it’s as if he cared more for making his ships than he cared for his ex. He doesn’t want to get back into the dating world, as he’s still hurt.
Sarah was happy in her marriage to a man her family would later tell her they didn’t approve of; he left her to be happy with another woman. She’s grown sick and tired of dating and her family takes it upon themselves to find her a good man with humorous results. Looming on the horizon for her is the father of one of her pre-school students, recently separated Bob (Dermot Mulroney), a man who’s clearly interested but represents a conflict of interest.
In any normal romantic comedy, there would a series of events that would allow meeting, greeting and falling in love with a series of implications allowing them to get over their failed romances and into a series of new lives. But they don’t want that; through the power of the internet and some pushing friends & relatives they end up meeting with bizarre comic implications. With the complication of Bob on the horizon, Must Love Dogs is an interesting, though predictable, romantic comedy. It would be rather dull as well if not for its two main characters.
Lane and Cusack are good actors who bring a much needed depth to the normally vapid characters that inhabit romantic comedies. It may be true that Cusack is the same sort of neurotic everyman in nearly every role he takes and Lane has settled in to being the sort of good-looking, but not impossibly gorgeous, girl-next-door, but at the same time they’re in roles that are old hand but not repeats of other, more famous parts. They also have a great chemistry together; this isn’t a movie that requires there to be anything more than the usual sort of clichéd characters and plot, but Cusack and Lane do bring a surprising energy to the roles that elevate the film into a good one.
Score : 7.5 / 10
The Video
Presented in a widescreen format with a 2.35:1 aspect ratio, the film looks great. While it isn’t one that needs or has any spectacular visuals to show, it has subtle charms that are nicely done.
The Audio
Presented in a Dolby Digital format, the film has a great sound separation. While primarily a dialogue-based movie, the DVD of Must Love Dogs does have a great audio component.
The Extras
Deleted scenes are several short scenes removed from the film. Totaling under four minutes, and featuring optional commentary from (), they aren’t vital or important to the film.
Pass the beef gag reel is two outtakes from the trailer scene where Carol throws Jake a chunk of meat. In these two she misses quite comically.
Theatrical trailer
Score : 3 / 10
