Puppy Love is a sweet and decent rom-com / dog movie. It stars Grant Gustin as a neurotic mess (with a female emotional support dog) and Lucy Hale as a more down-to-earth woman (with an adopted male dog). They go on a disastrous date… but their dogs get along so they continue to meet for the sake of the “kids”.

This is a light, frothy, fizzy rom-com that is mostly harmless and reasonably sweet and amusing. Gustin and Hale work well together… you can see why his neurosis drives her crazy and you can see why her annoyance with him drives his crazy too. And the dogs are cute.

I haven’t seen many episodes of The Flash, but what I have seen suggests Gustin is pretty much playing to his geeky strengths. Hale also is kind of playing a familiar version of one of her rom-com characters. They aren’t exactly stretching their acting muscles, but that’s ok because they have pretty decent chemistry together.

To the film’s credit, the entire relationship is not based on a lie or a misunderstanding like in most rom-coms. Which means we don’t get a phony breakup scene when “the truth” is revealed… they do have problems, but they are natural and believable. So that’s a major tick in the positive column for this rom-com.

It’s not a great movie but its warm and watchable. Hale and Gustin are cute together. And so are the dogs.

Score: 78