Full Review

And, indeed, the amiable if uneven comedy "Must Love Dogs" (Warner Bros.) -- adapted from Claire Cook's novel -- concerns Sarah Nolan (Diane Lane), a recently divorced preschool teacher for whom her well-meaning family (Irish Catholic, as it happens), runs a personal ad on an Internet dating site.

The family consists of sisters Carol (Elizabeth Perkins) and Christine (Ali Hillis), brother Michael (Glenn Howerton), widowed father Bill (Christopher Plummer), and other sundry relatives and friends. Later, we're introduced to Leo (Brad William Henke), her rotund gay co-worker and his good-looking partner, Eric (Victor Webster), who offer further matchmaking tips.

The ad invariably brings some very peculiar suitors out of the woodwork, though the comic outcome is fairly lame.

But eventually, Sarah connects with a lovelorn boat-builder, Jake Anderson (John Cusack), in similar straits. A romantic at heart, he wallows in endless viewings of "Dr. Zhivago."

He and Sarah "meet cute" in the park, each with a requisite dog (not their own) in tow, as the ad had specified. (Her Newfoundland is named Mother Teresa, no disrespect intended.) Jake puts his foot in his mouth at every turn, but generally Sarah finds him appealing.

The budding affair is complicated, however, by Sarah's attraction to Bob (Dermot Mulroney), the handsome, but rakish, separated father of one of her school kids, and just as the Sarah-Jake romance is about to hit its stride, Jake observes Bob giving Sarah an unwanted kiss, which nearly derails the relationship.

Writer-director Gary David Goldberg's screenplay meanders, and some of the plot turns are implausible, even in the context of a romantic bauble like this. And, frankly, it's just not funny enough. A feel-good rendition of the "Partridge Family" theme song by the sisters is particularly dreary. But more egregiously, there are some troublesome moral issues in the plot.

Sarah and Jake are both decent, and the script makes clear that their spouses left them, much to their painful regret. But Sarah -- egged on by her family -- sets out to find a man, and that apparently can include sex. At one point during the Sarah-Jake courtship, they decide to spend the night together, but a frantic (and fruitless) search for an open pharmacy to buy condoms ends with a change of heart. (Sarah, however, will sleep with another man before the film's morally satisfying ending.)

It's clear to the viewer that each of them is looking for true love. Though they're going through the motions of dating, their hearts aren't really in it, and there's the implicit notion that picking up men (as her family exhorts her to do) and sex before marriage are par for the course.

Dad, too, is a womanizer, with a veritable stable of girlfriends, including the uninhibited Dolly (played gregariously by Stockard Channing). It's not absolutely clear whether he's bedding them all -- because he has a touching speech with Sarah where he tells her that seeing these women is "just tap dancing" after he's had the "love of his life," his late wife, but the ground rules remain fuzzy.

So, too, Dolly, though mostly honorable, seems sexually adventurous, and she engages in an Internet correspondence with a young man who claims to be 18 (she's 61), but then shows up on her doorstep and reveals he was only 15 when they started writing. (With Sarah's help, Dolly gently sends him packing.)

Lane delivers a winning and wry performance, and comes across as far more "real" than most Hollywood heroines, not afraid to look every bit the thirtysomething role she's playing. Cusack is a good match for Lane, and equally likable.

There's predictably solid support from pros Plummer, Perkins and Channing.

The film contains a freewheeling attitude toward premarital sex, condom use, an instance of profanity, scattered crude language, sexual banter, and a scantily clad go-go dancer. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 -- parents are strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

These movies have been evaluated for artistic merit and moral suitability by the media reviewing division of Catholic News Service. The reviews include the CNS rating, the Motion Picture Association of America rating, and a brief synopsis of the movie.

The classifications are as follows:

A-I -- general patronage;
A-II -- adults and adolescents;
A-III -- adults;
L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. L replaces the previous classification, A-IV.
O -- morally offensive.

Note: Some movies previously were designated A-IV. Older films with this classification should be regarded as classified L.