Inexplicable Movie Review: Must Love Dogs

I watched Must Love Dogs the other night, and I was pleasantly surprised by what a good little romantic comedy movie it was. Is it among the upper echelon of John Cusack movies? Not really, since Say Anything is still the undisputed king in my book, followed by the frustrating but good Serendipity. However, it is a really watchable movie.

Part of this is due to the 45-year-old Diane Lane, who was around 39 or 40 when she filmed this movie, and looks impossibly good. I have no idea why she is so famous - Her IMDB has a bunch of stuff I haven't heard of. After seeing her in this movie though, I can definitely see why Bill Simmons has named the team of hot older ladies the Diane Lane All-Stars though.

Must Love Dogs falls apart a bit though because it relies SO much on Cusack and Lane to provide all of the entertainment. Yeah, they're pretty great, as is Lane's dad in the movie, even though he is kind of sleazy. But there are several ridiculous characters and plot aspects of the movie:

- Lane's entire family is full of horrible people. The very first scene of the movie, we learn that she has split up with her husband, and all the members of her family are gathering at her house with pictures of potential dates for her. Ugh. Nobody actually does that! wtf, movie? Her sister Carol is the worst offender, as she posts Lane's picture (from her high school graduation) and profile on an Internet dating site without her permission.

- John Cusack's character apparently sells boats, except that he doesn't manage to actually sell any of them, which his lawyer friend makes fun of him for in the movie. If that's the case... How the heck did he afford a house??? If they mention Cusack's source of money in the movie at all, I missed it. Apparently, he lives in a nice house because a woman like Diane Lane would want him to live in a nice house so that she could fall in love with him.

- The rival of Cusack for Lane's affection is a somewhat-hunky dad, who's son goes to the preschool that Lane teaches at. (Side note: Lane as a teacher is ridiculously cute and warm, and overshadows her other scenes in the film.) However, the movie completely glosses over that he cheated on his first wife and Lane knows! Yet, she never ONCE contemplates this in the movie! A cheating guy is like the number one "hate this pig" type for women; look at the venomous reaction Tiger Woods is getting. I am to believe that Diane "Super Cougar" Lane would not have the slightest hesitation about a dude that cheated on his wife? REALLY?

- There is a farcical moment so telegraphed that I called it seconds before it happened. Like, we're talking something you would see in She's All That or Drives Me Crazy or some other horrible tween romantic comedy. That, and a scene where Lane goes nuts and signs up for like 50 Internet dating sites, are the most unrealistic scenes of the film.

With the above issues, Must Love Dogs is more in the "cheesy fun" romance movie category as opposed to legitimately good. I still enjoyed it, because Cusack and Lane are so god damn cute together, but the rest of the movie is unintentionally funny.

Grade: C+

The photo of Lane and Cusack from the movie is from this blog. The Diane Lane photo is from this site.