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'Must Love Dogs': Classic romantic comedy

Quick, check the copyright date on Must Love Dogs.

In an era of movie impatience, where the jokes must be rapid-fire and preferably based on bodily fluids, writer-director Gary David Goldberg has created a gentle, genial throwback. It is a romantic comedy like they used to make them, about two 40-ish souls hurt by previous relationships, daring to lower their defenses a little and get back into the dating game.

Warner Brothers Pictures 'Must Love Dogs' B The verdict: A gentle throwback romantic comedy, well tailored to Lane and Cusack. Director: Gary David Goldberg Starring: Diane Lane, John Cusack, Elizabeth Perkins, Christopher Plummer, Dermot Mulroney Run time: 98 minutes Release date: July 29, 2005 Rating: PG-13 for sexual content. See showtimes On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime Rate "Must Love Dogs"   Go see it   Make it a matinee   Wait to rent   Don't bother Voter Limit: Once per Hour View Poll Results

It is the sort of movie that so trusts its audience enough not to tune out that it can pause for a bit of William Butler Yeats' poetry. Must Love Dogs — the title refers to a calculated requirement in an online personals ad — may not become instantly popular in a crowded summer of teen fare and special effects epics, but it is likely to gain cult status in the long run.

In that sense, it is most reminiscent of 1993's Sleepless in Seattle, about two people clearly made for each other, but who do not discover that fact until the movie's final moments. In that one, Meg Ryan is addicted to watching the weepy chick flick An Affair to Remember, whereas here it is John Cusack as sensitive schlub Jake Anderson who spends his afternoons sighing over the romanticism of Doctor Zhivago.

Goldberg's screenplay is awfully knowing, with lots of awkward encounters between mismatched dates and some terrific gobs of dialogue for Cusack as a philosophical boat builder, trying to get back in the romance race, but tripping over his too frank introspection. His first encounter with preschool teacher Sarah Nolan (Diane Lane) at a dog park goes especially badly, a meeting forced upon them by his divorce lawyer pal (Ben Shankman) and her nudgy sister (Elizabeth Perkins).

But in the traditions of classic romantic comedies, the inevitability of their ending up together is ordained from the start.

In part, that is the result of its two stars, well cast even if neither is working very hard or straying far from previous roles. The uncommonly attractive, even when trying to look dowdy, Lane is a highly sympathetic character, at sea in the dating pool and nearly going under. Apropos of the movie's title, puppy-like Cusack plays up his hang dog expressions and eternal boyishness. He is better when his roles have more edge, but this leading man assignment is as unlikely as it is appealing. As a divorced dad whose son is in Sarah's class, Dermot Mulroney comes on to her, but has no chance at winning her heart with Cusack in the picture.

Must Love Dogs is an effective primer on Internet dating services, with the usual montages of disaster matches. Sarah even arrives for a blind date to find she has selected her own widower father (Christopher Plummer), who plays the field with gusto. He is a stock comic character until a sympathetic gem of a scene in which he talks of having had the love of his life and is just not looking for another. In a similar way, Stockard Channing makes her mark as one of Plummer's ladies, a bit too savvy about society's double standard.

Considering that he was trained in television (Family Ties, Brooklyn Bridge), Goldberg is vigilant that Must Love Dogs does not stray into sitcom. His previous film, the underappreciated Bye Bye Love, was a decade ago, perhaps because his instincts are to swim against the mainstream tide. Who knows what is ahead for him, but he could have had quite a film career half a century ago.