It's astonishing, to me at least, how many truly awful romantic comedies are greenlit in Hollywood. Don't get me wrong – it's a genre that I have a definite weakness for, but after a while it gets exhausting to witness the same paint-by-numbers format used over and over again, especially when it's not hard to pick out where simple improvements could have been made. This week's example of how to make a poor rehash of Bridget Jones's Diary (which has succeeded When Harry Met Sally as the main template for chick flicks) is Must Love Dogs , starring the otherwise appealing Diane Lane and John Cusack.
Like so many of its recent ilk, it is based not on an original screenplay but on a chick lit novel. This is problematic insomuch as chick lit generally reads like a really, really bad screenplay: feather-light and an instant page-turner, but also wholly unrealistic and a tad ridiculous, especially when translated onscreen. Again, credit Miss Jones (or her creator, Helen Fielding) for establishing a list of prerequisites for these books: desperate singleton surrounded by smug marrieds; meddling, madcap family; gay male best friend; Mr. Too Good To Be True, who usually is; and Mr. Wonderful himself. Must Love Dogs manages to cram all of these in, deviating from the established pattern only in that it takes place in the suburbs (most chick-lit protagonists are urban-dwellers with high-profile but low-paying jobs) and centers around a 40-something divorcee looking for love on the Internet. (The boom in Internet dating was bound to generate a film like this, and I shudder to imagine how many more are probably in the works.)
Lane plays Sarah, a recent divorcee from a large Irish family who is skittish about returning to the singles scene. Her family, however, is unwilling to sit on the sidelines and watch her wind up alone, so goes about setting up an online profile for her. When a Dr. Zhivago -obsessed boat-builder (I kid you not) named Jake (Cusack) answers her ad, she agrees to meet up with him in a nearby dog park, but their chemistry falls flat due to mutual nervousness. Although Jake comes across as a creepy, older version of Lloyd Dobler, the charming hero Cusack played in Say Anything, Sarah remains intrigued by him despite being wooed by the dashing father (Dermot Mulroney) of one of the preschool students she teaches. After a series of miscommunications, Sarah and Jake finally realize they're meant for each other.
Should anyone still be inclined to go see the movie in light of the above description, I urge you stop reading now, for there are spoilers ahead. Right now, I'm going to fantasize about the kind of coverage I'd like to think I'd have written if I had been assigned by one of the producers to read and comment on the script before it went into production. First of all, I know a romantic comedy would hardly be a romantic comedy these days without the gay male best friend character (preferably of the flamboyant variety), but in this case, he is utterly superfluous, unless you count accompanying Sarah to get a manicure a weighty role. Secondly, Sarah's family is meddlesome to the extent that they become the collective equivalent of the best friend character (e.g. Marisa Tomei in Someone Like You ) whose sole purpose is to listen to the main character's woes, and whom you can't imagine existing outside of this role. Thirdly, Jake is, as mentioned before, kind of creepy (and I say this as an unrepentant John Cusack fan). Fourth, the finale is completely pointless. As in many a chick flick, it suddenly dawns on the heroine that she is meant to be with Mr. Wonderful instead of Mr. Too Good To Be True. Usually, this involves her chasing down the hero (and occasionally, vice versa) before he hops on a plane to a foreign land or marries the wrong person. In this case, Sarah realizes Jake is The One, and scurries off to declare her mutual affection for him. However, there is no real urgency here – Jake is not leaving the country; he's simply taken one of his beautiful handmade boats out for a spin around the lake. And yet, rather than wait for him on the shore, Sarah enlists the help of a woman's crew team to transport her to the middle of the lake, where she dives into the water, fully-clothed, to swim over to his boat. By this point, I was ready to throw something at the screen.
If the above action comes off like a lightweight sitcom, then it is no coincidence that the film's director, Gary David Goldberg, is a veteran of 1980s hit TV series Family Ties. Next time around, he might try consulting some of the sharp-witted screwball comedies of the 1930s rather than his own soft-edged work.
Copyright © Beth Gilligan 2002-2005
Rating:
0.0 / 5
(0 votes)
|
3337 views
|
Previous
|
Next
|
Best prices on Must Love Dogs
|
Print
|
Email page