Must Love Dogs (2005)
The Cast
Diane Lane .... Sarah
John Cusack .... Jake
Elizabeth Perkins .... Carol
Christopher Plummer .... Bill
Dermot Mulroney .... Bob
Stockard Channing .... Dolly
Ali Hillis .... Christine
Brad William Henke .... Leo
Julie Gonzalo .... June
Glenn Howerton .... Michael
Ben Shenkman .... Charlie
Jordana Spiro .... Sherry
Written & adapted for the screen by Gary David Goldberg comes Must Love Dogs, a movie the likes of which I'd normally stay far far away from. Just from reading the premise to it, I would have had no interest at all in sitting down to watch it. Then I saw that it was going to star John Cusack and Diane Lane, two actors that I always enjoy watching on the screen because of how much life they bring to their occasionally one-dimensional characters. So I resigned myself to the fact that I would eventually watch it, purely because of the rom-com leads.
Sadly, this would not turn out to be one of those instances in which my original instincts were wrong. For some bizarre reason, the opening credits seem to run like the end credits should. I've seen instances in which that worked for the movie, namely Irreversible, but for a humdrum, run-of-the-mill rom-com? Nay, that's completely the wrong way to set the tone of the movie, especially when this movie is being marketed to your everyday LCD audience.
Pretty much everything about this movie feels wrong just based on the first impressions it gives off. To top it off, Cusack's buddy was so unremarkable that I can't even remember his name. I think it was Charlie, but the point is that he's no Jeremy Piven, and I'm sure Piven was offered the role & rightfully turned it down. There's nothing to that character, just like almost the entire cast. The only bright lights were Lane, Cusack, Christopher Plummer, Elizabeth Perkins and Julie Gonzalo. Well, that's singly a lot of them out and the only reason Gonzalo is on the list is because she was so damn cute.
Even the fact that they acted well in these cookie-cutter roles isn't a cause for rejoicing. It's more like damning them with faint praise. Goldberg told Cusack if he wanted to write some dialogue for his character, he'd be more than welcome to beef it up a bit. Cusack came back with 35 pages.. for his character. It's possible he may have thrown some charity lines to the rest of the cast as well, but I have no way of proving that. Hell, he didn't even get a writing credit on the movie.
I'd have to give this movie just a resounding meh. There wasn't much potential in the storyline, but there was plenty of unrealised potential with the fantastic cast that was assembled. Sorta on-topic, but whoever does Stockard Channing's make-up on The West Wing should be hired full-time to work on her. My god, natural light is not flattering to her. The movie as a whole just strikes me as an uninspiring glob of commercialism. Lloyd Dobler would kill Jake.
1.5 outta 5