Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		2.5

Must Love Dogs Blu-ray Movie Review

What do you call a dog with no legs?

Reviewed by Randy Miller III January 22, 2025

A rare modern romantic comedy where the leading woman isn't two decades younger than her eventual suitor, Gary Goldberg's Must Love Dogs is heralded on this Blu-ray's back cover as the best of its genre since When Harry Met Sally. (That's not true by a long shot... but then again, neither were the countless modern Westerns likened to Unforgiven.) This one seems especially below the bar, not even approaching mid-tier status thanks to a lackluster script, uneven pacing, and an overly "stagey" feel, all of which handicap three key cast members that deserved better.

The first is Diane Lane who portrays Sarah Nolan, a 40-year-old divorced preschool teacher whose family and friends stop at nothing to fix her up with a new man. Chief among them is her bossy sister Carol (Elizabeth Perkins, who I've yet to see play a likeable character), who feels that Bob Connor (Dermot Mulroney) is the perfect match: the recently divorced dad of one of her students, Bob seems like a decent guy but something is holding her back. Carol expands Sarah's reluctant search by placing an online dating advertisement on her behalf, even using a 30 year-old photo and fudging her stats to get lots of results. It works, and all manner of suitors -- many of whom are a bit disappointed to learn she's not in her twenties -- respond to the ad, but she's really not interested in any of them.

The second is John Cusack, who plays another recent divorcé in Jake Anderson. The end of his recent marriage has pushed him into his work as a boat-builder, but his womanizing pal Charlie (Ben Shenkman) is as pushy as Carol and encourages him to "get out there". He soon decides to answer Sarah's ad and they meet at a local park, with their only shared similarity being that they're bringing other people's dogs. The disastrous meet-cute ends almost as awkwardly as it starts, pushing both of them back on their reluctant hunts for someone else. But... since Diane Lane and John Cusack are on the movie poster (or in this case, Blu-ray cover), you know how that's gonna turn out.

The third is Christopher Plummer as Sarah's father William, who's also looking for love and not afraid to stretch the truth to get it. Dashing and debonair (and apparently Irish, which somehow factors into the plot), ol' William ends up juggling three prospective younger women at once and even brings them all to a family gathering. This situation plays out about as awkwardly as it sounds on paper (if not more so)... and there's more where that came from, like a gross sub-plot where one of his girlfriends is secretly seeing a much younger guy who turns out to be a teenager.

Must Love Dogs is badly written to an almost spectacular degree. The plot is nonsensical even by rom-com standards, the pacing is extremely uneven, exposition is delivered clumsily, and character motivations are all over the map. Worse yet you'll have a hard time caring about any of them, which makes the somehow rushed ending of Must Love Dogs feel all the more undeserved. To be honest this film doesn't even belong in the same paragraph as When Harry Met Sally: there's no warmth, very little humanity, and it's entirely overcrowded (and borderline confusing) more often than not. Almost every scene looks staged and dialogue is delivered with very little passion or believability, making one wonder how exactly such a solid cast was both drawn in and completely wasted. An obvious culprit is the story by late director Gary Goldberg, which was apparently adapted from a one-off novel by Claire Cook that has since spawned seven more volumes. I've never ready any of them, but this adapted story seems to focus its energy in all the wrong places and continuously circles back around on itself to pad out the 98-minute runtime. Simply put, it's a dog.

Must Love Dogs Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Must Love Dogs' young age means that it doesn't require restoration in the same way most Warner Archive titles do, as the 1080p transfer of this 2005 production is not advertised as being taken from a new scan of its source elements. Not that it needed it, of course: this is a satisfying, workmanlike image that nonetheless shares the same qualities as most in WAC's library, boasting a uniformly clean and decent presentation free from damage, debris, and digital scrubbing. Colors are pleasing and natural, black levels hold up well, and shadow detail doesn't succumb to any perceivable crush. This presumably being an older master, however, it doesn't seem to have as strong a film-like quality as the majority of newly-minted Blu-rays form Warner Archive or elsewhere, and instead feels like the best possible version of a slightly dated source. It's still a very respectable one, though, and presumably several steps above the DVD transfer.

Must Love Dogs Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Likewise, the DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio mix gets the job done with a clean and mostly front-loaded presentation. Dialogue is obviously prioritized and typically stays there, occasionally straying into the surrounds depending on crowd size and location. The same goes for atmospheric touches, while non-diegetic music cues are typically presented in an even, "flat" manner and only overtake dialogue for dramatic effect. Simply put, it's a clean and pleasing presentation that doesn't reinvent the wheel and does what it needs to.

Optional English (SDH) subtitles are included during the film (and annoyingly in all caps), but not the extras below.

Must Love Dogs Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc release ships in a keepcase with poster-themed cover art and a trio of DVD-era bonus features.

• Deleted Scenes (4 scenes, 8:23 total) - Presented in upscaled SD video and looking pretty rough.

• "Pass the Beef" Gag Reel (1:01)

• Original Theatrical Trailer (2:03) - This lively promotional piece can also be seen here.

Must Love Dogs Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Warner Archive's Blu-ray of Must Love Dogs marks one of their rare 21st century releases, which usually bring a mid-tier catalog title to Blu-ray that just missed the cutoff the first time around. It's my opinion that there were much more deserving titles to choose from, but this film's cast was probably the reason it was a modest hit and that sentiment will likely carry over here. Either way, the boutique label serves up a decent A/V presentation that also preserves the DVD-era bonus features, giving fans of the film a long-overdue reason to retire their aging DVDs.