Dorfman in Love

A friend of mine who works in TV production has a pet theory that you can always tell that a sitcom is going to be awful if the posters or billboards feature a befuddled looking actress with her hands thrown up in the air in good-natured confusion or exasperation.

This stance is less common to film than television, but when I saw Sara Rue doing the pose on the poster for Dorfman in Love, I figured that it wasn't a good sign.

Turns out I was dead wrong.  While Dorfman is by no means a masterpiece and it's just slightly sitcom-esque, the movie is actually a whole hell of a lot more enjoyable and lovable than its one sheet led me to believe.

True, there is nothing really surprising that happens in Dorfman in Love, but as old-fashioned romantic comedies go, it has a surplus of heart, soul and sass. 

Most of this is due to a strong performance by comedienne Sara Rue (Less Than Perfect) in the title role, a thirty-something single Jewish woman who lives in the San Fernando Valley, works for her slimy brother (Jonathan Chase), lives with her depressive widower dad (Elliott Gould) and has a huge crush on her Eurotrash reporter friend (Johann Urb).  Nothing has really changed in her life since high school.

When her reporter crush gets an assignment in a Middle East hot spot, he asks her to house and cat sit his brand new hip bachelor pad in downtown LA.  (It's such a new place that he isn't even unpacked yet.)  She decides to decorate the guy's house, at the same time getting to see all the hip and trendy spots in the slightly tough neighborhood.  She also meets his cute, womanizing neighbor (Haaz Sleiman) who helps her move the furniture.  The two of them get on each other's nerves so completely that you know that they are destined to fall for each other.

In the meantime, the moping dad moves down in the apartment with her and learns to live again, and the brother gets into an extra-marital affair with two of her model neighbors.

Okay, it's not exactly the world's most incisive storyline, but Rue's wonderful charm and the overall good-heartedness of the film pulls it through its more sappy elements. 

Dorfman in Love is certainly formulaic, but it works its old formula better than you'd expect.

Jay S. Jacobs

Copyright ©2013 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: March 22, 2013.