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United States Puppy Love movie review: Lucy Hale and Grant Gustin's rom-com is forgettable
Leading up to Valentine's Day 2024, the latest romantic comedy offering is Prime Video's Puppy Love – a sweet, albeit forgettable entry into the much-loved genre. Even if the cheesy, off-key title doesn't seem inviting enough, this is a tale of two socially-awkward individuals, who find each other because of their pets. He has OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder), she has no inhibitions on privacy or space. What are the odds that they will share some time together and fall in love along the way? The trope has been played out a million times over, and Puppy Love does very little to add any freshness to it. (Also read: Upgraded movie review: Camila Mendes leads this spirited yet formulaic romantic comedy)
Puppy Love's premise
Directed by Nick Fabiano and Richard Alan Reid, Puppy Love begins with Max Stevenson (Grant Gustin), who is a walking-talking man ruffled up in his own issues of OCD and minutes away from his next breakdown. His therapist is nor very helpful, suggesting a 'mirroring' trick, and then to adopt a dog from a shelter. He finds Chloe, and together they share a lovely time. He does most of the talking whereas she silently listens. What else could Max want?
Moving in parallel is Nicole (Lucy Hale from Pretty Little Lies), who is a massive commitment-phobe, and cannot get her family to not look at her like a complete failure for once. Her real estate arrangement job is doing well enough for her, but the impulsive Nicole adopts a stray dog rummaging around her apartment's dumpster. She names the pup Channing Tatum.
Out of chance, both Nicole and Max swipe right on each other on Bumble, and meet at the park with their pets. Its does awry pretty soon, as Max throws up after eating the hot spicy chicken she suggested. Worse, their dogs get a little too comfortable with each other and fornicate. They end the day on a bitter note, vowing never to meet again.
Puppy Love gets going when Max discovers that Chloe is now pregnant, which means Nicole has no other option but to comply in this unexpectedly hilarious situation and co-parent their dogs together during the pregnancy. Now, if you've been following the story this far, you know exactly where the rest of the story is headed.
Final thoughts
The problem arises not in the predictability but in the half-baked storytelling. Puppy Love could have explored and developed these two characters along the way; where Max's OCD comes from, his fascination with collecting artefacts from movies or even his corporate work life, but the writing reduces his issues to cliché-ridden moments that do not paint a realistic outlook of existing with such a grave issue. Nicole doesn't even have a proper arc that could make her intentions seem any less than tone-deaf or inconsiderate after she has spent so much time with Max. Together, their romance never really hits the mark, even as Puppy Love takes its own sweet time to reach to that point in the first place.
Puppy Love feels too neat, too constructed and way too safe for its own good. It toys with a well-intentioned and excellent idea but fails to add the right amount of fire to it. For a change, I was reminded of Silver Linings Playbook, and how explosively volatile those characters felt at their own ground. Is there such space for intrigue and heat in Puppy Love? The answer is no.
