Must Love Dogs

Diane Lane (‘Under the Tuscan Sun’) works the lovelorn divorcee look yet again as teacher Sarah, who starts dating at the insistence of her sitcom-style family. Advertising for a man who ‘must love dogs’ on the internet, Sarah must choose between sensitive boat-builder John Cusack, sporty dad Dermot Mulroney and a host of comedy losers. We all know who she should plump for, but she takes her time getting there, busying herself with amiable scrapes and bonding sessions with her sisters. There’s a pleasing amount of dark wit in the screenplay, some of it emanating from the fact that Sarah inadvertently makes a blind date with her own father (Christopher Plummer). But Cusack’s character is hard to get a handle on and the plot is rambling. This may be better than your average rom-com, but a sharper rewrite of Claire Cook’s source novel could have made more of the quality cast. Still, at least the dogs take a back seat, letting the leads entertain without breaking a sweat.