Must Love Dogs (Diane Lane)

(Amazon UK link)

We wanted something light and undemanding to watch, so we decided to see ‘Must Love Dogs’. We saw it ten years ago, but had entirely forgotten the storyline. We’re not dog-lovers ourselves but storylines involving dogs are usually good value, often with some canine humour thrown in.

Dogs don’t, in fact, feature all that highly. It’s the story of two people who are single and really don’t have any wish to start dating again. Sarah (Diane Lane) is a preschool teacher of around 40 who has been recently divorced. She’s quite close to her siblings, who are determined to match her up with someone. But their attempts, although mildly amusing, are not at all successful.

Meanwhile Jake (John Cusack) is also recently divorced, but has little interest in starting a new relationship. He loves building boats from scratch, but his best friend tries to match-make and he goes along with it, although without a great deal of enthusiasm.

One of Sarah’s siblings signs her up for a dating website, giving her an exaggerated description, including the fact that a potential ‘match’ must love dogs. Not that Sarah owns a dog herself, but she’s looking after her brother’s. This is how she comes to meet Jake, in a park, with a borrowed dog.

The two do not hit it off, and there’s a side story where Sarah is really quite attracted by the father of one of her young students. He’s clearly keen on her but she’s concerned about the ethics of dating a parent of one of the children in her care, even though it’s a child she finds quite appealing. So for a while it’s not certain which way the story is going to go - neither of us could remember.

I suppose it’s not a particularly memorable film, but it has some good lines, and more humour than some ‘rom-com’ movies. An added bonus is Christopher Plummer as Sarah’s father, who’s quite elderly but also rather a womaniser. It’s probably due to this that the film is rated 12; we didn’t notice any violence or bad language, but there are many references to sexual actvities (though nothing explicit).

It made a good light evening’s viewing, and no doubt we’ll watch it again in another decade or so, when, once again, we will have completely forgotten the story.

Review copyright 2022 Sue's DVD Reviews

The Family Stone

(Amazon UK link)

When I was searching online for some Christmas films, one of the recommended ones was ‘The Family Stone’. I knew we had that on our shelves; apparently we watched it in January 2014 after buying it from a UK charity shop. But neither of us had any recollection of the storyline. So we decided it would be a good one to watch last night.

The film takes place over the course of just three days in the run-up to Christmas, with a brief epilogue a year later. At the start of the film, we see adult offspring arriving at the family home. Diane Keaton is, as ever, wonderful as a slightly harassed but very affectionate mother figure (Sybil Stone). Sybil is happily married to Kelly (Craig T Nelson) and they have five very different children.

Everett (Dermot Mulroney) is the oldest and he’s dressed, at first, like a 1940s American film star, in a suit and tie, looking slightly out of place in his rather bohemian family. He is bringing his girlfriend Meredith (Sarah Jessica Parker) to meet the family for Christmas. She is stressed and uptight, convinced everyone will hate her. She lacks any kind of intuition, tact or empathy, it appears, and continually makes unhelpful comments. It doesn’t help that one of Everett’s sisters, Amy (Rachel McAdams) met Meredith previously, and they did not hit it off at all.

Everett has another sister, Susanna (Elizabeth Reaser), who is there with her daughter Elizabeth (Savannah Stehlin) who must be about eight. Elizabeth is as lacking in tact as Meredith but in rather different ways. Their other brothers are Ben (Luke Wilson) who arrives late, dressed very casually, and makes caustic comments, and Thad (Tyrone Giordano), who is both deaf and gay, who comes with his partner Patrick (Brian White). These characters interact in ways that adult siblings might, with a deep underlying bond of affection but also a great deal of teasing.

Several subplots blend together realistically as we learn more about each of the family members and the dynamics between them. Meredith continues to make herself increasingly disliked, calling her sister in desperation and moving to a local hotel to stay with her. But the sister, Julie (Clare Danes) turns out to be a likeable, attractive person and Everett finds himself liking her increasingly…

There’s not a whole lot of plot as this is a character-based romantic comedy with the romantic element being fairly low-key, and rather muddled at times. But there are some excellent comic moments; the expressions on Kelly’s face are superb, and there’s a brilliantly choreographed (and very messy) scene towards the end which made us laugh - not with schadenfreude, but with the clever way in which one bump or messy surface leads to neatly to a further disaster.

We loved the way that the middle aged parents are so relaxed, on the whole. They accept their offspring’s love lives and friends and welcome them all, with plenty of food and places to sit, and a generally untidy but friendly appearance to the house. So their feeling that Meredith is the wrong person for Everett is all the more telling. We also loved the way that sign language is part of the way the family communicate with each other - something that would happen naturally when one of them is deaf.

There’s also a very sad thread intertwining; it would be a spoiler to say what it is (and actually we don’t know many details), meaning that the epilogue scene, a year later, is bittersweet. It’s delightful - with new members of the family, and their determination to carry on - and also very poignant.

We thoroughly enjoyed ‘The Family Stone’ and also liked seeing some of the ‘extras’ including a few deleted scenes, some; bloopers - mostly when Meredith’s character dissolves into laughter as she’s about to utter one of her tactless comments - as well as some characters discussing their roles, and the film in general.

Rated 12, probably due to several references to intimacy although there’s nothing explicit. Only minor bad language, and minor violence - one character slaps another a few times - but the film is unlikely to be of interest to younger children anyway.

Highly recommended.

You can find other reviews and more information about this film, including a short trailer, at the IMDb site: The Family Stone.

Review copyright 2020 Sue's DVD Reviews

My Best Friend's Wedding (Julia Roberts)

(Amazon UK link)

We were given the DVD of ‘My Best Friend’s Wedding’ for Christmas eleven years ago, after I had put it on my wishlist. I didn’t have any idea what it was about, but Amazon recommended it and the reviews were mostly positive. We watched it in January 2009, and last night decided it was time to see it again.

With a gap of almost eleven years, we had almost entirely forgotten what the film was about. Julia Roberts stars as Julianne, a woman in her twenties who works for a very likeable gay boss called George (Rupert Everett). Out of the blue, she gets a phone call from her best friend Michael (Dermot Mulroney). She was just thinking about him, realising that they had made a jokey promise to marry each other if neither was wed by the time they were 28 - and that date is fast approaching.

However, Michael is ringing to tell Julianne that he is about to get married to someone else. She’s younger than he is, and he’s quite nervous about it and would like his best friend to be there. Julianne realises that she loves him herself, with more than just the affection of close friends. So she flies to the wedding, purportedly to support him and make friends with the beautiful Kimberley (Cameron Diaz) - but hoping to steal Michael for herself.

It’s not the usual storyline, but it’s very well done. Julianne is really quite unpleasant in some of her methods; she tells herself she’s doing them both a favour, that Kimberley is really too young for Michael and won’t deal with his jet-setting lifestyle. She succeeds in making them both increasingly tense, and while much of it’s amusing, I felt almost uncomfortable at times. I could not remember how the film ended; but by the time it was half-way through I was rooting for Kimberley.

Although some of Julianne’s ideas are quite nasty, the film is tinged with humour. There are some clever pieces of dialogue, some great choreography, and a scene where the two women get into a fight… surrounded by other women, cheering them on. It’s not a deep film, and there wasn’t anything much to ponder at the end; but I thought it an enjoyable, relaxing piece of escapism.

One scene that came back to me, as it developed, was the final one - it would be a spoiler to say what happens, but it gave a positive slant to what might have been a bittersweet conclusion.

The rating is 12 (PG-13 in the US) and I’d say that’s about right. There are inevitable sexual references, and one instance of very strong language, but nothing explicit. There are a few shots of people in scanty clothing or underwear, but no nudity, even partial. There’s no real violence, and I would be happy to show this to teenagers of around fourteen or fifteen, if they were interested in this kind of film.

My husband liked it too, and I would certainly recommend it to anyone who enjoys the light romantic comedy genre.

For more information about this film, and a brief trailer, see My Best Friend's Wedding at the IMDb site.

Review copyright 2019 Sue's DVD Reviews

The Family Stone (Sarah Jessica Parker, Dermot Mulroney, Diane Keaton)

(Amazon UK link)

I picked up the DVD of 'The Family Stone' in a charity shop in the UK a couple of months ago. The cover showed an all-star cast (not that I recognised anyone other than Diane Keaton) and the blurb on the back sounded appealing. Three of us watched it last night…

Sarah Jessica Parker stars as Meredith, a smart, but rather uptight and socially awkward executive. She is in a relationship with Everett Stone (Dermot Mulroney) and he’s planning to propose over Christmas. He invites her to stay with his rather bohemian family, which makes her very nervous, as she is convinced that they will all hate her.

Diane Keaton is wonderful as the laid-back mother in a long and happy marriage which has produced five children, now all adults. Dermot has two brothers - the rather slobby (but likeable) Ben, and Thad, who is profoundly deaf, and also gay.

There are two sisters as well: Susanna is married and has a small and precocious daughter, and Amy is not currently in a relationship. I found the two girls a bit similar at first but over the course of the 98 minute film, I felt as if I got to know them all, to the extent that I could recall all their names the following day.

The plot revolves around Meredith’s increasingly dreadful attempts at making the family like her, not aided at all by Amy, who makes every effort to make her look even worse than she is. So Meredith invites her glamorous sister Julie to stay, and Everett finds himself liking her very much…

I found the strong American accents slightly hard to get used to at first, but soon my ears attuned and it wasn't a problem. I very much liked the way that the family all used sign language naturally when communicating with Thad, at the same time as speaking. The acting, in general, is believable if (inevitably) stereotyped. There’s some slapstick in the kitchen, which is quite well done, even if it mostly made me wince rather than laugh; there are one or two amusing moments, and also some surprisingly heart-wrenching subplots which I was not expecting.

It was appropriate to watch at this time of year as the theme is Christmas; some secular Christmas songs are included, as is a great deal of snow and general festive decorating. While it wasn’t the greatest film I’ve seen, it makes a good addition to our collection, and is a little different from the average ‘rom-com’.

The rating is 12 in the UK, which seems about right; there’s no violence or anything overtly sexual, nor any seriously bad language, but there are plenty of innuendoes and sexual references. I am slightly surprised to find that the usually more prudish US censors have awarded this a PG rating. However, I very much doubt if anyone under the age of about 15 would be interested in this anyway.

The usual special feature are included - commentary, deleted scenes, and more.

Review copyright Sue's DVD Reviews

Must Love Dogs (Diane Lane, John Cusack, Dermot Mulroney)

(Amazon UK link)

I'm not quite sure why 'Must Love Dogs' appeared on my wishlist; probably Amazon recommended it to me, based on other films I had rated and enjoyed. The reviews sounded reasonably positive, and it's in the light-hearted romantic genre, so I was pleased to receive it as a gift for Christmas.

So, with a free evening last night, we sat down to watch this with a guest. We expected something fluffy that would not require much thought, and, indeed, that's what we got.

The plot is about Sarah (Diane Lane) who is recently divorced. She works as a pre-school teacher, and is happy enough. However, she's part of quite a big extended family, who think she must be desperate for romance, so try to set her up with other men. Her family includes a womanising father (played by an aging Christopher Plummer) and a busybody sister Carol (Elizabeth Perkins) who sets Sarah up on a matchmaking website.

Of course, not all the guys who get in touch with Sarah are suitable... we see cameos of various dates with caricatured bores, geeks and even one who bursts into tears every couple of minutes. Sarah really isn't interested in another guy; she prefers to hang out with some safe gay friends who reassure and comfort her.

However, there are two rather nice men Sarah comes across who do appeal – the ‘incorrigible’ Bob, father of one of her students, and Jake, a perfectionist boat-builder who doesn’t seem able to make a sale. It's not immediately obvious which one she was going to end up with, although it soon became clear.

There were a few dogs thrown into the mixture, some lines that made us smile, and a happy, if predictable ending. All in all, 'Must love dogs' was a pleasant evening’s viewing.

Rated 12 in the UK, PG-13 in the US, probably due to repeated references to sex. However, there is nothing explicit in the film, no nudity, no violence, and - unusually - we didn't notice any bad language.

Review copyright Sue's DVD Reviews

My Best Friend's Wedding (Julia Roberts, Dermot Mulroney)

(Amazon UK link)

Browsing DVDs on Amazon, wanting to add a few to my wishlist for potential Christmas presents, I came across 'My Best Friend's Wedding'. Probably recommended to me because of the genres I tend to like - low-key romantic films with a light, perhaps humorous side - and also the cast.

Sure enough, I enjoyed it very much.

The story features Julianne (Julia Roberts), who has been ‘best friends’ with Michael (Dermot Mulroney) for nine years. She is invited to his wedding... and suddenly realises she’s in love with him.

His fiancée (Cameron Diaz) is bright, enthusiastic, and also very much in love with Michael, but Julianne determines to do all she can to break them up, figuring that all is fair in love, and that Michael and she will never be really happy without each other.

The pace is good, the script well done, although it becomes rather surreal at times. For instance there's a scene almost reminiscent of a 1960s musical when a table full of guests break into song at one point. Or there's the time when Julianne’s gay boss drops everything and flies to her rescue after a frantic phone call. There is even a spoof Bond-style car chase.

But this DVD was exactly what I needed for an evening’s relaxation with my husband. Decidedly a ‘girly’ film, but he liked it too. Julia Roberts is believable, if a little over the top at times, and the outcome was never entirely certain until the end. Recommended.

Rated 12 in the UK, PG-13 in the USA, probably due to one or two instances of bad language, and a little sexual humour.

Review copyright Sue's DVD Reviews