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Nine Months: This film represents Hugh Grant's first big bid at Hollywood stardom, on the heels of the success of Four Weddings and a Funeral. But he stumbled twice: first with this mundane comedy, then by being arrested after soliciting a prostitute near downtown Hollywood, the week before the film opened. Directed by Chris Columbus (Mrs. Doubtfire), Nine Months was a weak reworking of a French film about an aging bachelor (Grant) who can't decide whether to commit to the woman he loves (Julianne Moore). When she becomes pregnant, he still can't make up his mind and winds up blowing hot and cold on the subject of fatherhood, which causes tension in the relationship. There's a lot of low comedy involving Grant's best friend; Tom Arnold plays this ultra-married and child-ridden suburbanite, who makes fatherhood look like a living hell. Robin Williams has a funny cameo as a foreign doctor, but in the end, the sentiment is ladled on and Grant doesn't have nearly enough funny material to work with. --Marshall Fine

The Truth About Cats and Dogs: One of the most memorably offbeat romantic comedies of the 1990s begins when a talk-radio veterinarian named Abby (Janeane Garofalo) takes a call from Brian (Ben Chaplin), the owner of a roller-skating Great Dane. Brian is intrigued by Abby's voice and asks if she'll agree to meet him. Insecure about her looks and her nonexistent love life, Abby agrees, but describes herself as a tall blonde, then begs her attractive neighbor Noelle (played by Uma Thurman) to meet with Brian in her place. The ensuing case of switched identity is complicated when Noelle takes a liking to Brian who, of course, thinks she is Abby. This confusion gains comedic momentum when Abby safely plays herself on the radio and in a long, hilariously seductive phone call with Brian, but by now the situation has grown hopelessly complex, and Abby has to find a way to reveal herself without disappointing Brian. Many viewers rightly complained that the movie relies on the assumption that Abby is unattractive, even though Garofalo is more attractive and appealing here than she'd been in several movies before and since. Still, this contemporary variation on Cyrano de Bergerac is a lightweight, good-natured surprise that values the quirks and foibles that make lovelorn romantics (including their pets) uniquely appealing. --Jeff Shannon