There’s no lazier way to get a laugh out of an audience than
cutting to a dog’s face as a punchline. Similarly, there’s no easier way to
wring tears from an audience than putting that dog in jeopardy, or even killing
off the poor pooch entirely. Both are shortcuts filmmakers can take when they
want to squeeze emotion out of the viewer, but don’t want to put in the effort
to get them invested in an actual story or characters. “A Dog’s Purpose” is a
feature-length dog reaction shot interspersed with periodic doggy demise. The
film makes its audience watch its tail-wagging protagonist kick the bucket over
and over (and over) again as it’s reincarnated into various canine bodies. It’s
undeniably effective, but it still feels cheap.
Based on the best-selling novel by W. Bruce Cameron, “A Dog’s
Purpose” follows one dog’s soul as it’s reincarnated as different breeds and
genders across the decades. All the while we’re allowed to hear his inner
dialogue through voiceover provided by Josh Gad. The film is directed by Lasse Hallström, who knows his way around a dog movie, having
previously helmed “My Life as a Dog” and “Hachi: A
Dog’s Tale.”
The majority of the movie is dedicated to one of the dog’s
earliest lives, when he’s named Bailey and owned by Ethan (Bryce Gheisar). Bailey never leaves Ethan’s side, providing
comfort as Ethan’s homelife takes a turn for the
worse, largely due to his alcoholic father. Boy and dog remain best friends as
Ethan grows into a teen football star (now played by K.J. Apa) and finds himself falling for Hannah (Britt
Robertson). But life pulls them apart, as Ethan goes off to college and Bailey
is left to live out the rest of his days on the family farm. And then Bailey
dies.
He comes back as a female German Shepherd
police dog, partner and loyal companion to officer Carlos (John Ortiz). Then
he’s a Corgi who helps a lonely college student, Maya (Kirby Howell-Baptiste)
find love. Then he comes back as a hound, first owned by a down-and-out couple
who eventually abandon him (some weird class issues are unintentionally raised
when the film seems to suggest that only poor people mistreat their dogs). On
the plus side, the dog’s abandonment allows and adult Ethan (now played by
Dennis Quaid) and Hannah (Peggy Lipton) to reenter Bailey’s life.
“A Dog’s Purpose” is meant to be an ode to man’s best friend and
the vital role a dog can play in a person’s life, though it mainly succeeds in
furthering the idea that the only purpose of these animals is to improve the
lives of us humans.
Keeping Gad as a consistent voice works for character
continuity, but the effect makes it seem that no matter what form, this dog is
always Bailey on the inside. This doesn’t help the idea that the other lives
don’t really count; that Bailey biding his time until he gets back to the owner
who really matters to him. It’s an odd thing to tell dog lovers — that your dog
might not really be your dog at all — though I’m sure the conceit worked better
in book form.
Unfortunately, the film’s warm and fuzzy vibes threaten to be
overshadowed by behind-the-scenes controversy. Shortly before the film
premiered, video leaked of some questionable treatment of one of the film’s
canine stars on set. In a relatively candid letter
to The Hollywood Reporter, the film’s producer admits that mistakes were
made, but that the video is edited in a way to be misleading as to the extent
of those mistakes. The video has dominated online discussion around the movie,
and while we’re not likely to know for sure what happened on set, just the
possibility of animal mistreatment is bound to keep some people away.
Still, as I read every day about how everything is terrible,
that the world is on fire and crumbling down around us, maybe laughing and
crying over adorable doggy antics can offer some welcome distraction, if only
for two brief hours.
This article appears in Jan 25-31, 2017.
