‘Good with Animals’
Thursday I watched ‘Must Love Dogs‘ again on DVD, with Diane Lane (as Sarah Nolan) and John Cusack (Jake).
While using any movie, book, or other object of fiction (daydreams?) as a basis for life goals is chancy if not dangerous, I liked a few of the character changes that drive the plot in this movie.
Both leads begin after a divorce, neither is interested in meeting someone else, and both are sensitive, caring people. Sarah’s sister makes up an Internet ‘PerfectMatch.com’ ad, Jake’s friend/divorce attorney answers the ad in Jake’s name. Each borrows a dog for the initial encounter. We watch both characters move from skeptical to interest in dating, to a growing attachment to the other. Jake immediately returns his friend’s dog, but Sharon ends up adopting ‘Mother Theresa’, an adorable Newfoundland puppy (six months old at filming, and one size smaller than a pony!) that Jake also adores. Sharon has a fling with a charming schmuck with a son in Sharon’s class; the son quotes his mother that Dad is ‘incorrigible’ meaning he sees other women. Sharon’s fling is short lived, ending when he bails on the morning after for ‘late for a game’ when she would rather bask in the afterglow. In the movie Jake and Sharon stumble through some typical Hollywood crap of misunderstanding the presence of others, etc., then Sharon makes a heroic declaration of love to turn Jake’s life from resigned to rapture. Yada, Yada. As a story this is a nice movie, quiet and enjoyable.
Sharon and Jake both learn (relearn?) to refine their views of the world. They go from an amorphous concept of ‘dating’ as a realm of activity they don’t feel comfortable with, to picking someone to get to know, to discovering that it matters a great deal whether their partner is honorable, honest. And good with dogs.
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