# Lost & Found (1999/I)

### reviewed by
Jon Popick

PLANET SICK-BOY: http://www.sick-boy.com

I can't decide which is more sick – seeing Hollywood cast my grandfather's classmates as the romantic interests of girls that are still waiting for their adult teeth, or the oddball casting of Dungeons and Dragons club president David Spade and the ravishing French beauty Sophie Marceau. Or is it more twisted to make Spade, in his biggest theatrical release since the death of Chris Farley, have a big, fat, loser guy (Artie Lange, MAD TV) to hang around with?

Golden Globe nominee Spade (Just Shoot Me) stars as Dylan Ramsey, the owner of a struggling Italian eatery who falls for the new tenant in his L.A. apartment building. She is Lila Dubois (Marceau, Braveheart), a transplanted Parisian cellist who fled her country in an attempt to ditch her smarmy ex-boyfriend Rene (Patrick Bruel). Lila also has a yapping little dog with a penchant of jumping out the window and hanging out by the pier.

Dylan sees the dog as an attempt to get close to Lila, so he kidnaps the dog while pretending to help her look for it. As she grows fonder and fonder of her seemingly kindhearted neighbor, he is horrified to find out that the dog has apparently eaten the engagement ring of Dylan's best friend and restaurant chef. And, yes, there is a great scene where he has to sift through the dog poop.

Spade, who co-wrote the film with first-timers James B. Cook and Marc Meeks, is a slightly more sensitive version of his television character, though his lines don't have the same gratifying sarcastic bite. And he is a little more successful than Just Shoot Me's Finch, as he is able to woo both strippers (like Dylan's previous girlfriend) and women of Marceau's caliber alike. Conversely, Marceau really makes you appreciate Emily Watson's cello-playing in Hilary & Jackie, although when Sophie wraps her legs around the instrument, you don't so much care about her acting chops.

Directed by Jeff Pollack (Booty Call), Lost & Found features a hysterical cameo from hysterical cameo messiah Jon Lovitz, who plays a dog whisperer (a la the Robert Redford film of a similar name). There are also a few great scenes involving some poker-playing grannies - Estelle Harris (Seinfeld), Rose Marie (The Dick Van Dyke Show) and Marla Gibbs (The Jeffersons). For what it is, Lost & Found is not disappointing and good for more than a few laughs.

1:40 – PG-13 for adult language, sex jokes and a little dog violence, but nothing like There's Something About Mary

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