The Truth About Cats and Dogs Review

by Ram Samudrala (ram AT mbisgi DOT umd DOT edu)
May 14th, 1996
THE TRUTH ABOUT CATS & DOGS
    A film review by Ram Samudrala
    Copyright 1996 Ram Samudrala

It is fairly obvious that by the end of /The Truth about Cats and Dogs/, Abby Barnes (Janeane Garofalo) is more beautiful, both internally and externally, than Noelle (Uma Thurman). Unfortunately, I think the movie failed in that it actually used someone who was cute and pretty and made her off to be an ugly duckling.

Abby Barnes appears to me like a typical child of the 90s: cute, brash, and bold. Her lack of self-esteem would be surprising if I encountered such a character in the real world. However, it works in the movie since we all know how it's going to turn out.

Brian (Ben Chaplin) is a photographer who calls up Abby when she's doing her pet talk show (pun intended). Grateful for her advice, he suggests that they meet for dinner. Abby, showing the afore-mentioned lack of self-esteem, describes herself as a blonde goddess. When she doesn't show and Brian decides to visit the radio station, she conveniently makes her new-found friend Noelle (who is a blonde goddess) take her place. Needless to say, it works just long enough to get through most of the movie.

Brian's reaction, when he finds out that Abby and Noelle have been deceiving him, is pretty much on mark, and he immediately jumps to the conclusion that it was all a game, and this is about the only time I was happy with this character.

This movie is pretty sappy, and there are few twists and turns to keep the audience engaged until the end. I'd wait for it to come out on video.

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