Dog Park

With the exception of a golden retriever that drinks from a water fountain, the pooches in Kids in the Hall graduate Bruce McCulloch's debut romantic comedy are spared the humiliation of performing stupid tricks. If only the same could be said for the two-legged actors, who seem to have been instructed to pretend they were in a Juicy Fruit commercial.

Although their acting skills far exceed those of their human co-stars, the charismatic canines can't save the formulaic storyline or the insipid dialogue. Heart-broken strangers Lorna (Natasha Henstridge) and Andy (Luke Wilson) meet in a bar, exchange what is meant to be witty banter, and instantly fall in love -- but they don't know it yet and spend most of the film trying to find love in all the wrong places. Oh, and they both have dogs. McCulloch ambushes us with "twists" so obvious they come as an annoying surprise and attempts to mimic real-life dialogue by peppering the script with the irrelevant parts of conversation people in real life wish they could by-pass completely. The film does have its moments when it shows owners treating their pets like (or even better than) their children, but otherwise . . . it's for the dogs.

-- Jumana Farouky