Where, oh where have all the good romantic comedies gone? As a fan of the genre I had hoped that in this summer devoid of good date movies that Must Love Dogs would be the one to bring a little romance to the box office. Sadly, however, this is not the case. To enjoy this movie you really must love dogs or at least a dog of a movie.
Must Love Dogs is doomed from the start. The opening scene features an intervention by Sarah's (Lane) family. No, she's not a drug addict or an alcoholic. She's committed an even worse sin. She's single! Obviously her life will be unfulfilled and not worth living unless she immediately finds a man. She must now devote every waking second of her existence to finding that special someone. But not to worry, all of her relatives have someone they'd like to set her up with. Her sister Carol has even posted her info on a dating website, including in her profile that all potential applicants for the position of boyfriend, Must Love Dogs.
The rest of the plot really isn't worth going into since it's been done so many times and so much better before, but here's a summary (taken from the guide to Romantic Comedies 101). Sarah needs a man or her life will be worthless. She complains about her lack of love life to her best friend, who is, of course, a gay man, because apparently, according to these movies, every single woman is now issued with a gay best friend as soon as they hit puberty. She meets two men, one who seems nice (Mulroney), the other who seems a little odd (Cusack). Eventually she must choose between them. One will turn out to be a lying philanderer and the other will turn out to be sweet and romantic. Along the way she'll learn a few shallow life lessons spoken in the kind of platitudes that you normally have to read a Hallmark card to find, she'll engage in some spontaneous and embarrassing singing and dancing with female relatives, before eventually realizing that the man of her dreams is right in front of her nose.
Given that there are so many complaints about how hard it is for actresses past the age of 35 to find work, it might seem refreshing to see 40-year-old Diane Lane playing the lead in a romantic comedy. It might seem that way, but it's not, because while she is forty years old, the part could just as easily have been played by a 20-year-old, since her character's emotional maturity seems equal to someone that age. Helen Hunt in as Good as it Gets or Joan Allen in The Upside of Anger do a much better job with far better material as women older than the norm in Hollywood in romantic comedies.
Perhaps this movie is only meant to be enjoyed by single women. Perhaps the title to this movie has a double meaning. Or, perhaps I'm just glad that I'll never have to watch this movie again.
