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Preschool teacher Sarah Nolan (Diane Lane) is still recovering from a painful divorce. She’s perfectly happy to wallow pathetically in her heartbreak, shopping for one at the grocery store and eating alone over the kitchen sink, but her family decides that the best way to heal a broken heart is to move on and find someone else. Sarah repeatedly rejects her family’s list of potential beaus—so her sister Carol (Elizabeth Perkins) takes matters into her own hands and signs Sarah up at an online dating agency.
Finally, Sarah gives in and goes on a few disastrous dates—including one with Jake (John Cusack), an artsy, philosophical wooden boat maker who’s just a little too intense. Their date at the dog park lasts just minutes, but Jake can’t get Sarah out of his mind, and he’s hoping she’ll give him a second chance.
Meanwhile, Sarah’s also caught the eye of Bob (Dermot Mulroney), the charming and recently-separated father of one of her students. And while she’s determined to refrain from dating her student’s father, he’s determined to change her mind.
Must Love Dogs is a film about trying to find The One—and trying to make it work, despite all the misunderstandings and poor timing. As can be expected from a chick flick, the story isn’t all that original or unpredictable, but it’s entertaining nonetheless—and the cast makes it worth a couple of hours of your time. Lane is as sweet and innocent as ever as the shy, reluctant divorcee (much like her character in Under the Tuscan Sun). And Cusack is as adorably awkward as ever. Together, they make a strange—yet lovable—pair. Add to that Christopher Plummer as Sarah’s widower-back-on-the-market father and Stockard Channing as his new “friend”—and throw in some cute kids and a few fluffy dogs—and you’ve hit the chick flick jackpot.
This romantic comedy is heavy on both the romance and the comedy. It’ll bring that cheesy, sappy grin to your face, and then it’ll make you laugh out loud. And the laughs aren’t just the ones you’ll find in the trailer, either.
There may have been three times as many women in the theater as men (yep—I counted), making it unquestionable chick-flick material, but the women weren’t the only ones enjoying themselves. I heard plenty of undeniably male belly-laughs coming from the theater—and if the guys could enjoy this chick flick, too, it can’t be all that bad.
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