Jashandeep Singh
‘Puppy Love’ is a romantic-comedy film that centers upon a free-spirited woman named Nicole and an introverted man named Max, who have an awful first date after being matched on a dating app. However, fate takes an unexpected turn when their dogs form a romantic connection. The two are then compelled to embrace the role of dutiful co-parents, which opens up the possibility of romantic feelings blossoming between them.
The Nick Fabiano and Richard Alan Reid directorial boasts of relatable characters like Nicole and Max, played to perfection by Lucy Hale and Grant Gustin, respectively. The film also features some heartwarming moments that resonate well with the audience. The portrayal of realistic characters coupled with authentic situations leaves one thinking if the film is inspired by a true story. Well, let’s find out.
Puppy Love: Fiction Inspired by Viral BuzzFeed Series
‘Puppy Love’ is not based on a true story. The film is entirely a work of fiction, with a story written by Greg Glienna, Peter Stass, Kirsten Guenther, Dan Scheinkman, and Richard Alan Reid. However, the movie is inspired by the 2015 BuzzFeed digital series ‘Puppyhood’. The series, which went viral on its release, follows a man who found his soulmate in a puppy. In ‘Puppy Love,’ Nicole and Max find solace with their puppies while they deal with their internal struggles, just like the protagonist of ‘Puppyhood’. The film has also been produced by Buzzfeed Studios, the creators of the original series.
Interestingly, Reid, one of the directors of the film, serves as the Senior Vice President of Global Content at BuzzFeed and is the Head of BuzzFeed Studios. At the same time, while the storyline of ‘Puppy Love’ is fictional, the characters portrayed in the film seem highly relatable. Max deals with social anxiety as he feels nervous around others and mostly stays home because of it. This is something a lot of people who have similar struggles can relate to.
On the other hand, Nicole acts like a “wild child,” pretending that she is always having fun and is not worried about things. But deep inside, she struggles with complicated emotions and always tries to curtail them. The layered writing makes the characters very true-to-life, and they form an instant connection with the viewers. Lucy Hale also emphasized that the one thing she likes the most about Nicole is how relatable she is. “I really liked the way my character was written. Typically, you might see the girl in a role like Max, and Max being the hot mess type of role,” the actress told Collider.
Lucy Hale added, “I really liked that she was very much a professional and had certain things going on in her life, but personally, she was just a disaster. I found that really relatable. I’ve definitely been at that point in my life.” Hale added that to make the portrayal even more real, she carried out special preparations with her co-star Grant Gustin. “As far as the script, it was always there, but something really special happened after I was cast and Grant was cast. We had time to play and tweak things and made it feel more real,” she revealed.
The actress concluded, “We definitely edged it up, as we were filming, because we found the tone as we got started. It was just the easiest yes for me. It was a rom-com with dogs.” Taking the aforementioned points into account, we infer that ‘Puppy Love’ is not based on any real incident, but the emotions and complexities presented in the film are very much a part of the real world. The actors have also gone the extra mile to make the portrayal seem even more natural, further enhancing the realism and heartwarming charm of the film.
Read More: Where Was Puppy Love Filmed?
