Sarah (Diane Lane) is recently divorced. Her husband stopped loving her, found another woman, and started a family, which is something he wouldn’t do with Sarah. She’s feeling hurt and disillusioned, and her entire family has decided to do something about it. They start bringing her pictures of single men complete with phone numbers, but she’s just not ready to take the plunge. Finally her sister Carol (Elizabeth Perkins) goes behind her back and sets up a page on a dating site.
Jake (John Cusack) is also recently divorced. He doesn’t want to go through that kind of pain again, so he ignores his friend’s attempts to set him up. When he relents, he finds Sarah’s ad, and agrees to meet with her.
Their first date gets off to a rocky start. He has an intense personality and she’s a little skittish. He sees something in her that he finds very attractive, and can’t get her out of his mind. Meanwhile, one of the fathers at the school where Sarah teaches asks her out, and she’s very flattered, even though she knows, from her student, that this man is a womanizer.
Jake asks Sarah out again, and things go well for a time, and then take another rocky turn. Misunderstandings keep them apart, and they’re going to have to be honest with each other and themselves in order to find their happily ever after.
This is a story that will touch your heart. You’ll get mad as you see them making mistakes, you’ll cheer for them as their romance blossoms, and you’ll come away feeling that all is right with the world. These two characters are perfectly suited for each other, and we see a tender depiction of a father/daughter relationship as Sarah seeks to understand her father.
I must submit, however, that this film is not suitable for children or teenagers. It does have adult themes and will be best enjoyed by the grown-ups in the family, but possibly not the grandparents. Rated PG-13.
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