DVD Review, Canine Classic: Must Love Dogs (love and divorce, family, dogs, comedy)

Must Love Dogs, with Diane Lane and John Cusack (Warner Brothers, Rated PG-13, 1998, 98 minutes)

Where’s the Beef?

Dog on the cover, Dog in the title, but where’s the dog in the movie?

Dog is a very minor character. Actually Dog is a Westie who does not sit, come or lie down but will play dead at the drop of a hat. Dog is also Mother Theresa, a Newfie who is an adorable big bear of a dog with a slightly large screen presence (played by two Newfies*).

Both dogs have small roles: the smaller the dog, the smaller the role. Dogs do, however, permeate the flick on occasion with even a golden retriever jumping into a fountain in the final picnic scene – water!

Fun, Funny, Funnier, Funniest?

Having said all that, Must Love Dogs is a fun and funny movie replete with two new boyfriends (who will win the girl?), a dateless divorcee (too old for John Cusack?) with a huge Craftsman home I got lost in, a gigantic sum of siblings we couldn’t get straight and a wonderful father figure in Christopher Plummer with Stockard Channing as one of his girlfriends.

The Plot

The entire family is out to set up Diane Lane with a prospective mate by registering her on online dating services. One sister requests a prospect to be someone who ‘must love dogs,’ even though Lane has to borrow her brother’s Newfie to meet him, who also borrowed a dog, the Westie, to meet her, at an off-leash dog park.

It is a fun movie, perhaps not worth a second viewing for a while, unless you love Newfies and Westies!

*“No dogs were harmed during the filming of this movie. Though we were petted within an inch of our lives,” said the Newfies as the credits roll.