Merv

I really wanted to like this given the actors, but it's super gloomy, be warned. If you're in the mood for a cheery holiday movie, this will not be it! The dog is sad (not funny), the actors are sad, the music is sad... and there is very little relief. I can appreciate if they were going for something deeper than a silly romantic comedy, but this is the anti-Elf.

Look, it's a Christmas movie about a dog. It's a perfectly fine, perfectly predictable film.

But why is it so grey? The colour grading is horrendous. Half the film takes place in Florida, yet the colours look muted and washed out. It doesn't exactly ruin the film, but knocks it down a point or two.

This movie was sweet and fun. Watched it with my daughter and we had some good laughs at the dogs' antics. The two leads made a cute and believable couple, and made you want to root for them. And Merv was appropriately adorable.

The beach resort for dogs was a clever setting and made for some amusing situations. Loved Charlie Cox in this! He is so likeable. Zooey is fine but Charlie and Gus (Merv) carry the movie.

A stereotypical holiday-themed romcom AND a dog? Yes, please!

It's a story about a modern couple that's co-parenting a dog and dealing with a break-up.

Charlie Cox was so good in this role: sweet, charming, funny and believable. He's exactly the love interest you'd want to see in a film of this caliber. He's the approachable guy next door, but then they put glasses on him and he instantly became 10 times hotter.

Gus the dog who played Merv is so adorable, i just couldn't take my eyes off of him.

However.....since when can Zooey Deschanel not act?! I'm a big fan of "New Girl", and I always assumed she was a good enough actress. Now I'm starting to think that the strong male cast of the show concealed he lack of talent so well that I was fooled. Here she is absolutely horrible. She couldn't even have chemistry with the dog on screen. The entire film it just felt like she really didn't want to be on that set. I didn't believe a single thing she has said, a single face expression. It devastates me to say, she was just bad in this movie. Replace her with any other female lead, plus Charlie and Gus - and it would have been a solid romcom.

This Amazon movie became available streaming this week. I was anxious to watch it because I am a Zooey fan. So my wife and I watched it. I enjoyed it fine as interesting entertainment, she enjoyed it less, she feels that some parts moved a bit too slowly.

Living and working in Boston Zooey Deschanel is Anna Finch, an optometrist. She has been in a long-term relationship with Charlie Cox as elementary school teacher Russ Owens. They have a dog, Merv, that each one is very attached to, much like if it were a child.

When the two split up for questionable reasons they make an agreement to share Merv, alternate weeks. But Merv seems to be depressed so Russ decides his next week will be spent with Merv at a Florida dog resort on the beach.

They go but Anna shows up unannounced, that is the catalyst to create a number of interesting situations. As we watch we sense that Anna and Russ aren't really over each other and it seems that will be leading to their repairing the fractured relationship.

There are a few novel concepts and while it isn't a very memorable movie I did find it suitably entertaining. Just a one-time viewing.