The 'Must Love Dogs' phrase comes from the personal ad placed by divorced primary school teacher Sarah's sister to help her find a suitable man.

Sarah (Lane) is facing a midlife crisis following her split and a series of unsuitable dates makes things so bad her family post her pic on internet dating sites.

Out of all the creeps and weirdos in cyberspace, the only promising reply is from Jake (Cusack) an outwardly rugged boatbuilder whose favourite movie is Dr Zhivago.

He does have a dog…but doesn't actually want it. She doesn't have a dog but is so intrigued she arranges to borrow one.

The double draw here is the droll, racy patter delivered at a lightning pace (especially by Cusack) and the fact the two leads look like they've been round the block and haven't stepped off the pages of Hello magazine.

In fact, their advanced ages - he's 39, she's 40 - provide wised-up characters who've been there before and can lend insight into the ludicrous nature of the mating game.

Among the daft examples is Sarah's randy septuagenarian dad (Christopher Plummer) whose active cyber sex life means he scrolls up inadvertently as one of Sarah's prospective dates.

Minor gripes aside (Sarah is too much of yummy-mummy to stay single for long) this is a welcome rom-com that isn't afraid of a lot of (funny) words.

OK, it adheres to a formula...but so does paracetomol - and that always leaves you feeling better and ready to face the day.

Tim Evans