Lane and Cusack Leash Love

“Voluptuous, sensuous, alluring and fun. DWF seeks special man to share starlit nights. Must love dogs.”

With those words begins a journey relatively recent divorcée and thirty-something preschool teacher Sarah Nolan (Diane Lane) isn’t even sure she wants. But that doesn’t matter a lick to her nosey sisters Carol (Elizabeth Perkins) and Christine (Ali Hillis). They figure after Sarah inadvertently answers the personal ad of her own 71-year-old widowed father Bill (Christopher Plummer) it’s time to take charge and make their sis grab the proverbial bull by the horns. So they place the ad above on an online dating service, using their sister’s high school graduation picture – in cap and gown no less – as her profile photograph.

After a series of dates that go nowhere, Sarah meets boat builder Jake Anderson (John Cusack) acerbically nursing a broken heart brought on by a recently finalized divorce of his own. The thing is, as great as he appears to be he’s still a little on the intense side, measuring love and romance to the eternal ethereal struggle of Julie Christie and Omar Sharif in “Dr. Zhivago.” Maybe soon-to-be-single dad Bob Connor (Dermot Mulroney) is more to Sarah’s liking, the apparently perfect father sexy and charming enough to make even the most lovelorn sad-sack take a second look at Cupid’s bow and arrow. Who knows? The truth is, until Sarah can be honest with herself she’ll never really find her soul mate, and until that day comes her love life is going to keep going to the dogs.

Based on Claire Cook’s novel of the same name, “Spin City” and “Family Ties” creator Gary David Goldberg’s “Must Love Dogs” is the writer-director’s first feature in almost a decade and the time away shows. Not that either of his last two efforts, “Dad” and “Bye Bye Love,” were much to crow about, but for all their many faults (and they were numerous) they were still assuredly put together and confidently handled. This one isn’t. Goldberg’s indecision in regards to both pacing and montage is sometimes painfully haphazard, and the use of pop songs to get from here to there is about as tired a conceit as there is.

Good thing his screenplay and knack for casting has gotten better over those last ten years. While “Must Love Dogs” is nothing more than a rather traditional and remarkably unsurprising romantic comedy, it’s still an astonishingly entertaining one all the same. While a little on the long side, it’s an enjoyable and intoxicatingly warm-hearted journey into love’s timeless embrace. And, even if the whole thing smacks a little too much of “When Harry Met Sally…” and (unfortunately) “You’ve Got Mail,” it’s so enjoyably crowd-pleasing it’s hard to be too mean-spirited when the whole things gets a bit wet behind the ears.

It helps that both Lane and Cusack are phenomenal. When stars have chemistry there is nothing more pleasurable to watch on celluloid. Both have come close to achieving this goal in the past. But as good as some of their earlier works are (with Cusack being in at least six bona fide classics; “Say Anything,” “The Grifters,” “Eight Men Out,” “Being John Malkovich,” “Grosse Pointe Blank” and “Adaptation;” by my count) neither has had a costar this sparklingly effervescent to play off of. They’re wondrous, each hitting on all cylinders so succinctly it borders on magic. I adored them here, my ability to cut “Must Love Dogs” some slack completely based upon the fact these two are so exquisitely first-rate.

What’s even better is that the rest of the cast rises to the occasion and nearly matches them. Perkins hasn’t had a role this nice in ages, caustically playing off Lane with the wit and wisdom of a real sister. Meanwhile, old pro Plummer almost walks away with things altogether. Whether romancing a cavalcade of mature women nearly (but not quite) his own age or sharing a quiet moment with his daughter, Bill is a wily curmudgeon still hung up on the one true love of his life yet still more than game to see what else his heart can achieve. Even the great Stockard Channing manages to excel inside a role far beneath her considerable talents, turning one of Bill’s potentials into a movingly complex feminine figure looking only to not spend her remaining active years alone. Only the blissfully sexy Mulroney disappoints, going through the motions in a part we’ve unfortunately seen him play far too many times before.

Still, this is Lane and Cusack’s show from start to finish. Even if the final is more than a tad soggy, the duo eat up Goldberg’s dialogue like it is the tastiest Tuesday dinner this side of a Thanksgiving feast, each making the movie far richer and more worthwhile than in it probably deserves. It could just be I’m tired of being single myself, weary of spending my nights writing about cinematic love than making the effort to find the real thing myself. But even if that were the case – and gawd knows I hope it isn’t – I’d still like to think I’m not that much of a pushover. No, “Must Love Dogs,” earned its smiles, and the only bone I really have to pick is that, in the end, I failed to bring enough tissue.

Film Rating: êêê  (out of 4)