The Truth About Cats & Dogs

I tend to dislike most of the serious romantic movies like 'Titanic' etc. They're just not my kind to be honest. Love many of the classics like 'Sabrina'. I would have enjoyed 'The Truth About Cats & Dogs' a lot more if there was a little more comedy to it. It's an okay (and forgettable) movie with some decent performances and a few good moments but at some point it seems to drag. Perhaps a little editing would have helped. On the one hand I can understand why Jeanine Garofalo is cast as the 'ugly' girl (she looks far from ugly) but, in my humble opinion, she's not portrayed as an 'ugly' girl but rather as a woman who thinks of herself as unattractive. Yet, I thought that the Lehman really went a little too far, at times, by focusing on her 'ugliness' e.g. by showing people on the street calling ugly at her character. In contrast, Uma Thurman looks a lot less attractive than usual and she's portrayed as the 'hot' one. To an extent 'Lehman' does succeed in showing the stereotypical beauty that's created by the media (Thurman's character) and what would be considered as less attractive (Garofalo's character). Garofalo is very likable. Her on screen personality here does not differ much from her other roles but she succeeds in what she set out to do. Thurman is a little over the top at times but otherwise makes a great comparison to her female co-star. The two actresses share a very warm chemistry. Ben Chaplin is quite alright and fortunately he doesn't do the American accent. In a nutshell, it's a average film that could have been better.

Janeane Garofalo stars as Abby, a veterinarian who has her own radio show. She is a cultured, educated woman, who is smart, has a good sense of humor and makes a great living. The problem is that her self-esteem is low because she does not find herself attractive being 5'1 brunette who once upon a time while in college had gained 40 pounds. Well, she looked like she lost all of them and she was charming if you ask me (perhaps, it is solidarity of another 5'0 brunette ) but when she developed a relationship over the phone with one of the callers, she tells him that she is 5'10" statuesque blonde who is hard to miss. The blonde (Uma Thurman) happened to be her next-door neighbor, the aspiring model/actress who agrees to go on the date instead of Abby... It may sound like cliché, and the film has several holes in the plot but is very enjoyable thanks to wonderful performance by Janeane and to these words:

"You know how someone's appearance can change the longer you know them? How a really attractive person, if you don't like them, can become more and more ugly; whereas someone you might not have even have noticed... that you wouldn't look at more than once, if you love them, can become the most beautiful thing you've ever seen. All you want to do is be near them."

7/10

Without a doubt, my favorite play ever written is CYRANO DE BERGERAC, by Edmund Rostand. People can tell me it's sentimental and mawkish, but I don't care; I absolutely love it. I've seen, I think, most, if not every, movie which has been inspired by it, from the 1950 version by Jose Ferrer(the movie is stagy and changes the play, but he's wonderful), to ROXANNE in 1987, Steve Martin's wonderful re-working of the play as romantic comedy, and best of all, the 1990 version starring Gerard Depardieu(how appropriate France's greatest actor should appear in it giving his best performance). Now comes this movie, which is inspired by it(as I understand it, writer Audrey Wells is a big fan as well) rather than being an outright remake of it, but it's still quite good.

Admittedly, it all hangs on a rather thin premise; that Brian(Ben Chaplin) is unable to tell the voices of Abby(Janeane Garofalo) and Noelle(Uma Thurman) apart. But romantic comedies have had more outrageous concepts before, and no one complained about how realistic they were(like RUNAWAY BRIDE; does anyone believe that one?). And by switching genders, it's able to talk about how women are forced to conform to an impossible ideal of beauty. And yet, at the same time, the message comes through comedy, so you're not being hit over the head.

Also, the performers are quite engaging. It goes without saying Janeane Garofalo is terrific in her first lead role. She's funny, as could be expected, but as she's had to fight the impossible ideal of beauty much of her career, you can sense something personal for her, and she brings that out without getting mawkish. Uma Thurman sends up the "dumb blonde" role without condescending to her. Plus, we like Noelle for the same reason we like Christian in the original; she's actually smarter about love than Abby is(when she says of Brian, "Plus, he's got this one, tiny little fault. He loves you."). Chaplin of course has the object of desire role, which is tough to play, but he brings humor and intelligence to it. And, of course, the dog is great.

If it doesn't irk you when a plot hinges on inexplicable errors made by supposedly intelligent characters, then you may not be annoyed by 'The Truth About Cats and Dogs,' a romantic comedy starring Janeane Garofalo as Abby, a supposedly intelligent, supposedly insightful, and supposedly unattractive veterinarian who hosts a radio call-in show.

A shy photographer (Brian or Eric or something) calls in to the show having trouble with a large dog he's mounted on roller skates for a shoot. Oh, he's so cuuuute!!! Our heroine is in a tizzy. They make a date, but too insecure to face him herself, Abby sends her neighbor, Uma Thurman. How this plan is supposed to work to Abby's advantage, I can't say. Time after time Abby and Uma pass up opportunities to straighten out the confusion. It's a good thing too, because that gives them time to learn a valuable lesson about looks and love, which is: Nice guys don't care about looks. Uh huh.

But audiences do, saith the producers. Thus we have the famously fabulous Thurman cast against girl-next-door Garofalo, who is no slouch in the looks department. So, as Abby, she is frumped up from the start in dowdy, fat-girl clothes and flat hair. It's the oldest trick in pictures. As the credits slowly approach, Abby magically acquires better clothes, a more flattering hairstyle, and a makeup job that gives her lush lips and discernible cheekbones. I guess looks still count for something.

"The Truth About Cats and Dogs" may be a charming and (rare these days) profanity free comedy, but it reveals some unpleasant truths about Hollywood and maybe American society as a whole. Janeane Garofolo plays a veterinarian who dispenses advice about pets on a radio talk show. One male caller is so taken with her voice and personality that he asks her for a physical description and a meeting. Insecure about her looks, the petite brunette describes herself as a tall blonde, and when her admirer appears at the radio station, he is introduced to Uma Thurman, a tall blonde, who agrees to trade places with Garofolo. The message of this film is that the beauty within is more important than physical attractiveness, but the other unintended message is that physical beauty is not in the eye of the beholder but determined by how closely one resembles the seemingly bulimic fashion models plastered on magazine covers. Uma Thurman is a perfect match which is the same as saying she is, in Hollywood's eyes, perfect. I couldn't disagree more. Thurman is a bag of bones and, to my eyes, not at all attractive. Garofolo, who at one point in the film is called "ugly," is, in fact, the woman with the most appeal, physically and in terms of personality. She makes this movie worth remembering.