| Show Must Love Dogs' Dogs One Tail of a Romance 1 Ann Hornaday 1 The Washington Post Must Love Dogs this summers summer's first bona fide romantic comedy stars Diane Lane in a role that is threatening threatening threatening threaten threaten- ing to become her own casting ghetto that of the recent divorcee looking for love with the help of her gay best friends That was the story line in Under the Tuscan Sun Lanes Lane's last has been supplanted supplant supplant- movie here Italy ed by the far less visually compelling Southern California and the gay best friends have been moved to the background background background back back- ground in favor of a warmly meddling Ir Irish sh Catholic family But the basic rules still apply and despite the movies movie's patently outlandish contrivances contrivances contrivances con con- and too-precious too dialogue it works It works because Lane is one of those actresses who can do just about anything and still earn the audiences audience's undying love Is it that adorable furrowed furrowed furrowed fur fur- rowed brow That nervous smile The way she unlike nearly every other actress working today actually once in a while looks as if she might need a little sleep Whatever it is Lane possesses that ineffable quality that makes her not only sensational drop-dead drop but appealing not only but unthreatening To paraphrase paraphrase paraphrase para para- gorgeous phrase what they said about James Bond men want her women want to be her Or more precisely men think that she isn't completely out of their league and women dont don't look at her herand herand herand and immediately want to give up And in case weve we've forgotten since her Oscar-nominated Oscar turn in Unfaithful Lane can act which in Must Love Dogs means she can make even the most canned ersatz predictable material ring true Luckily her opposite number John Cusack brings the same warmth and appeal to the enterprise making what might have been a strictly the by-the- numbers chick flick into an improbably bly smart and genial little mental get get- away What's more these two generate generate generate gener gener- ate real slow-burning slow rapport so that youre you're still pulling for them even during during during dur dur- ing a gratingly preposterous climax Based on the novel by Claire Cook Must Love Dogs features Lane as Sarah a year old preschool teacher who's been dumped by her rotten of a husband and who as the movie opens is the subject of a dating intervention by her sprawling family Let it be said that Sarah in fact does not own a dog that's just a flourish her older sister Elizabeth Perkins includes when she takes it upon herself herself herself her her- self to place an ad for Sarah on an Internet dating service Meanwhile across town boat- boat builder Jake Cusack also recently divorced is the subject of similar lobbying lobbying lobbying lob lob- from his best friend Jake and in vf r N I l. l r rr r. r V fa r Vo f N o L d pt p- p t- t 3 Diane Lane and John Cusack in Must Love Dogs l lf f tYl Sarah meet cute at a local dog park the conversation is something of a disaster and the rest of Must Love Dogs concerns itself with how these singletons two perfect other will cut their way through the chaff to find each other again Must Love Dogs has been adapted adapt adapt- ed and directed by Gary David Goldberg best known for creating such television hits as Family Ties and Spin City and it has the visual glow and glib repartee of a particularly particular particular- ly high-end high sitcom its it's the kind of i middlebrow i J A. A MA I-MA popcorn friendly w rt 1 rom rom- IVUl- IVUl com that we used to depend on Nora Ephron to make You wont won't necessarily believe a word of a movie that features a male lead who builds wooden boats in his timber brick-and-timber loft is a fan of both Doctor Zhivago and the Ramones and has no discernible means of support support support sup sup- port but Goldberg and his two leads Must Love Dogs Continued on Page 12 Must Love Dogs Cont Cant from Page 7 clearly understand love of a certain age Like As G Good Goodas dd as It Gets and the uneven Gotta Give Must Love Dogs takes an often mordant look at mid mid- dle-aged dle romance and fords finds a arich arich arich rich vein of humor A sequence during which Jake and Sarah try to consummate their attraction is hilariously on What's more Must Love Dogs features an enormously enormous enormous- ly appealing supporting cast including Christopher Plummer as Sarah's single dad who features in one of the movies movie's funniest gags Stockard Channing as a blowzy trailer-dwelling trailer divorcee with a heart of gold and a little-known little actress named Jordana Spiro who steals every scene she's in as asa asa asa a giggly round-heeled round ditz Reportedly Cusack asked Goldberg to rewrite his dialogue dialogue dialogue dia dia- dia- dia logue to make it more in keeping with his own brainy rapid-fire rapid cadences and if that's true it was a good idea His scenes with Lane crackle with all the giddy hopes and anxieties of a man newly smitten and an early monologue monologue monologue mono mono- logue he delivers in which Jake expounds on his narra narra- tive theory of romantic relationships relationships rela rela- actually makes makes- much more sense than the usual You complete me me blather Likewise Lane who undergoes undergoes undergoes under under- goes dozens of makeovers in inthe inthe in inthe the course of several funny first and last dates with her Internet correspondents is is always rooted and radiant even at her most depressed alive is there anyone else who makes haggard look this good If the audience roots for Jake and Sarah its it's not because they're particularly written well-written characters but because the actors so skillfully skillful skillful- ly manage to make their authentic selves visible beneath the veneer In Must Love Dogs that veneer is usually either prissily prissily prissily priss- priss self con ily manicured or goofy this is a movie after all that features references to Yeats and The Partridge Family Its It's all as sunny and super-cute super as Sarah's perfect little house and the films film's Big Scene which is supposedly propelled propelled pro pro- by the desperation of the main character seems more motivated by the desperation desperation desperation des des- of the director But despite such occasional stretches and thanks to its splendid lead players Must Love Dogs has the affable cuddly charm that its title so hopefully invokes |
