Grounddog Day
By Dwayne Tillman
Look, I love dogs as much as the next person. Seriously, as humans, we don’t deserve them. And they certainly don’t deserve sentimental, saccharine sap-fests such as A Dog’s Purpose, the cinematic equivalent of a mass produced Hallmark card whose only (sorry) purpose seems to be to cash in on the easily manipulated Mothers Day crowd.
A Dog’s Purpose is essentially Boyhood (Doghood?) meets Groundhog Day (Grounddog Day?), where Bailey the Golden Retriever (voiced by Josh Gad) is our narrator. Bailey is saved from being trapped in a hot car by a mother and son and is then brought into their family, where he is raised over the years by the son Ethan (Riverdale’s KJ Apa). Ethan eventually moves away for college, Bailey eventually dies of old age and…boom; he’s reincarnated as a completely different dog. And again. And again. And again. You get the picture.
In A Dog’s Purpose’s defence, the film is exactly what you’d expect from a Lasse Hallström directed film about life as a dog (to say nothing of the actual Hallström film My Life as a Dog). It’s got that glossy, Kleenex ad-style cinematography to it and it’s so safe and sugary sweet that it’ll give you instant cavities. But is it seriously wrong to ask for a little more? The idea of dog reincarnation could have lead to some interesting explorations into the dynamics between dog and human. And admittedly, there are sporadic moments throughout the film like this that are somewhat involving. However, for the most part, the film is only really concerned with surface pleasures and manipulating you with all of the soaring strings and twinkling pianos in existence. As a result, none of the ’emotion’ actually feels authentic.
The film is less interested in actual storytelling than it is in checking off the boxes on the Hokey Drama Cliches checklist. A young boy and his dog have an unbreakable connection? Check. Drunk father subplot? Check. All of those cliches that you think would be there are there, and while it gets less cringe worthy and predictable (comparatively) as it goes on, the first half hour is particularly hard to sit through. When you’re not rolling your eyes back out of your head, you’ll be attempting to hold your vomit down.
Had the film shown some sort of inspired flair and wit, I would have had less of a problem with some of the more cliched elements of it. Instead, Hallström is all too willing to rely on how many “Awwwwww”‘s he can get out of the audience over how cute the dogs are (it worked because I counted at least 20 in my screening).
Mercifully, it’s not a long film, and its running time zips past pretty quickly. It’s pleasant enough to look at, and the animal acting is competently pulled off, although it’s at times difficult to not think of that leaked TMZ animal cruelty video, even if it apparently has been proven to be a falsity. It’ll do well with the kids, the mums and maybe the serious dog lovers. For everyone else, it’s a doggone bummer.