tek's rating: ¼

Must Love Dogs (PG-13)
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This came out in 2005, but I didn't see it until 2021. It's something I wanted to see specifically because it stars Diane Lane and John Cusack. And I wasn't disappointed in their performances, but the movie itself I only kind of liked. There's nothing specific that I disliked about it, though.

Anyway, Lane plays a recently divorced woman named Sarah Nolan, whose whole family keeps trying to set her up on dates, but she doesn't want their help. Eventually, Sarah's sister Carol (Elizabeth Perkins) creates a dating site profile for Sarah, who reluctantly agrees to answer some of the responses she gets. None of them turn out to be much good. Meanwhile, Cusack plays a recently divorced man named Jake Anderson, whose friend Charlie wants to set him up on dates, and I forget whether he created a dating profile for Jake or convinced Jake to do it himself. But anyway, Charlie responds on Jake's behalf to Sarah's profile, and sets them up on a date at the dog park. Neither Sarah nor Jake own a dog, but they do both like dogs, and each borrows one from someone they know. Their first meeting, I'm not sure how well it went. Seemed kind of iffy, to me. Also, Sarah, who is a preschool teacher, has an interest in the father of one of her students, a man named Bob (or Bobby; played by Dermot Mulroney). She wants to avoid dating any father of her students, but eventually something does begin to develop between the two of them. Also, Sarah's widowed father, Bill (Christopher Plummer), has a dating profile of his own, and is seeing several women. The only really important one to the plot is Dolly (Stockard Channing), with whom Sarah bonds.

Well, I don't really want to spoil any details of what transpires between Sarah and Jake or Sarah and Bobby. But of course it's not until just about the end of the movie that she finally chooses one, and there's a fair amount of off-and-on between all of them before that happens. At one point, Jake dates a woman named Sherry, whom Charlie set him up with. She clearly wasn't right for him, but I wanted to mention her just because she's played by Jordana Spiro, whom I know from My Boys, so it was nice to see her, even if it was a small role. While I'm at it, I might as well mention that Charlie was played by Ben Shenkman, whom I know from For the People. Anyway, I don't really know what else to say about the movie. It's not bad, despite being kind of formulaic. But it's not something I feel the need to ever see again. Still, I'm glad I have seen it this once.


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