The Truth About Cats & Dogs: 1996, dir. Michael Lehmann. Seen on DVD (May 15).
The Truth About Cats & Dogs is a cute little movie. It is such an amiable, cute movie that even my boyfriend likes it, and he dislikes romantic comedy generally. (He hated Amelie but I still like him.)
Remember the days when Janeane Garafalo was hot in her short-round-brunette way? Remember when she shone in those funny-sidekick roles? Then she tried to take the lead in romantic comedies, which didn’t quite work. But we still loved her and we all wanted to be cool like her.
Now she’s a scary skinny blonde who rants about politics on the radio. It’s a sad world.
But back in the day, she was quite entertaining in The Truth About Cats & Dogs. I miss those days. Maybe I should rent Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion again. Or Mystery Men.
This movie only works because of the casting. Garafalo’s character falls for a cute British guy (Ben Chaplin) who has mistaken Uma Thurman for Garafalo (she’s a radio personality, they hadn’t seen each other before, blah blah blah). It would be difficult for me to believe that Garafalo’s character would be quite so insecure about this guy finding her attractive if it weren’t for Uma Thurman. I mean, any woman would figure she didn’t have a chance up against that. And we all identify with Garafalo.
I don’t have a lot to say about The Truth About Cats & Dogs. It’s a very straightforward romantic comedy, basically a riff on Cyrano de Bergerac. Janeane Garafalo reminded me why we all used to fight to be cast as her when we used to play Let’s Cast Our Office As A Movie. Uma Thurman looks lovely, but this was back when she kept getting cast as someone pretty with not much depth. This movie is miles away from, say, Kill Bill.
You might expect something a bit more memorable from the guy who directed Heathers, but he’s never managed to match that movie in terms of wonderful weirdness.
The Truth About Cats & Dogs is a nice movie to rent or maybe catch on cable once in awhile. I wouldn’t buy the DVD or go out of my way to see it again. There are so many more romantic comedies I prefer. And I’d rather watch Roxanne if I want a Cyrano-esque comedy. I’m not sure why my boyfriend likes this movie over other romantic comedies … except we have been watching a lot of Uma Thurman lately. Hmmm.