Movie Review by Ania Kalinowska
Starring: Diane Lane, John Cusack, Dermot Mulroney, Elizabeth Perkins
Director: Gary David Goldberg
Does the world really need another MUST LOVE DOGS? An annoyingly routine comedy romance, it stars Diane Lane (who forgets to sizzle the way she did in UNFAITHFUL) and John Cusack (who has with this firmly cemented himself into the charming role of troubled love-sick puppy) playing the two forlorn 30-something-year-olds trying the game of modern dating. MUST LOVE DOGS is very cosmopolitan, relies on starry-eyed concepts of affection, and is true to the tried and tested formula of movie love seeping through.
Lane and Cusack are divorcees who must struggle through various dates to finally make that unlikely catch of a perfectly imperfect partner. Whether it is each other or not is rarely the point of these chick flicks. It is the entertaining process that gets them to the end that is of interest. When this ‘entertaining process’ drops the ‘entertaining’ bit, you are left with a lonely ‘process’: an easily-forgettable film which can be fast forwarded to the end because the middle doesn’t matter. This is the reason why we are not supplied with remote controls in cinemas!
Croon heartedly all you like at this sing-song tale, but nothing manages to incite the lacking chemistry in both the major love and comedy areas. Not only is the story dismally predictable, the stuff gearing us to the end credits is not so much talent as it is knowledge of selling point: this is, above all, a romantic comedy and it never ever goes beyond the usual gags to make it interesting.
There are a lot of well-known faces in this movie, and all of them look like they had a load of fun making it. This doesn’t mean it will be a load of fun to watch! The fact that there is nothing really outstanding from anyone involved hammers home that this is a rather lazy, half-baked result of what could have been an altogether wonderful film.
If you’re after light-hearted, senseless viewing this is a hit, but for a film with absolutely no surprises and an absence of ingenuity this is a tedious retelling of what has gone before.
Die-hard romantic comedy fans this one’s just for you.
