Must Love Dogs

Ok, think of every cliché that commonly appears in chick flicks. Got some in mind? Good! You could find most of the clichés that are in your head in the movie Must Love Dogs. This movie was based on a novel written by a local woman. While I would like to show pride for someone from my part of Boston doing something noteworthy, in this case, I just can’t.
Let me explain. This movie begins by introducing us to the main characters, which seems like a promising start until you actually meet them. Sarah Nolan (portrayed by Diane Lane) is a divorcée who is convinced by her family to start dating again. They try to set her up on blind dates and set up profiles for her on matchmaking Web sites. Then you meet Jake (portrayed by John Cusack), a man getting over a breakup, who is strangely obsessed with boats. They both find each other on a Web site and the story begins from there. I don’t want to spoil too much for those wishing to be unjustly robbed of two hours of their life.
When I began watching the movie I was hoping that it would be a nice, cute movie, which I could write a nice review about. This movie actually tortured me so much that I had to shut it off halfway through. With encouragement from my sister, I decided to watch the remainder. (Good advice, sis.) She told me that it got better. She lied to me when I was kid, so I don’t know why I was surprised when she lied to me about this. Now let me explain why my feelings about this movie were slightly negative.
I saw no originality at all in this movie. First of all, you have the two people who are completely broken from previous relationships and don’t know how they will ever be able to trust anyone again (cliché 1). They try to go on a number of dates which convinces them that there are no good prospects out there, and then they meet their “match” (cliché 2). On their first date, they each think that the other person isn’t right for them and figure there will be no repeat dates (cliché 3). Upon spending time together they realize they have things in common and almost get together but a really big misunderstanding happens and they are torn apart (cliché 4). They both realize that they were right for each other and that they were fools for forgetting about one another (cliché 5). They are both miserable and then one decides to make one big romantic gesture that makes everything all better (cliché 6). This is not even all the clichés that are in this movie, but I went with this generalization to illustrate how this movie is like every other chick flick out there.
The really funny thing is that I like chick flicks. If you ask anyone on They Might be Critics, they would say that Stormy Pinkness is definitely a chick-flick watcher. Normally they would be right; however, in this instance they would be on crack. To say it plainly this was not a good movie. The acting was meh and I feel that it was the fault of the story itself rather than the actors. I can just imagine the actors thinking, “Well, if the writer doesn’t really care about making this exciting or different, I guess I don’t need to.”
And now for my favorite part of the review, the rating! I give this movie a -13. I would not recommend it to anyone. It just wouldn’t be a good idea. If someone feels that they absolutely must see it, I suggest a lobotomy.