YEAR OF THE DOG
Rough! Rough! One For The Dogs
The PopcornReel.com Film Review: "Year Of The Dog"
By Omar P.L. Moore/April 20, 2007
Mike White's directing debut "Year Of The Dog" is a commendable
attempt at unearthing the roots of dysfunction and loneliness of a being trapped
in an ostensibly hyper-exaggerated real world. A comedy at heart with a
soul as murky and distressing as an remorseless executioner who realizes that he
has just executed an innocent man, "Dog" reels us in with a strong performance
by Molly Shannon, whose Peggy, an avowed and devout defender of the animal
species that is humankind's best friend, is a character whose equilibrium
kilters unsteadily towards a vacancy and unsettling state of mind that is both
uncomfortable and riveting.
Unfortunately, Shannon is the only person and aspect of Mr. White's film that is
of great interest to the audience.
The story is a stale, static composition and it lacks energy and ambition.
Mr. White has written more superior work ("School Of Rock", "Chuck And Buck",
"The Good Girl"), but this script lacks a soul, but doesn't lack melancholy or
mean-spiritedness. The static aspects of the film come from either its
blandness in the unremarkable narrative pace and pedigree or the emptiness of
the lead and surrounding characters. This appears intentional, as Peggy's
world is empty and her own connections to humans are few and tenuous. In
short, Peggy has difficulty trusting human beings in general and her only friend
is her brother (Tom McCarthy) and her sister-in-law played by Laura Dern,
cheerily over-protective parents of their two young daughters. Her
attempts at romance with the opposite sex are either met with crudeness in the
form of a rambunctious neighbor (John C. Reilly) or thwarted by the
effeminateness of an asexual celibate (Peter Sarsgaard, in a neutered-type of
role.)
Peggy and Pencil: Perfect together -- Molly Shannon, excellent as the
disintegrating Peggy, and her adorable friend Pencil, the love of her life, in
Mike White's "Year Of The Dog". (Photo: Paramount Vantage)
Peggy's boss at work (played by Josh Pais) has no time for her
animal rights shenanigans. Mr. Pais' dead-pan ways add bite and wicked
delight here, and apart from Shannon his performance is above merely
commendable. Peggy's best work buddy is played by Regina King ("Ray" and
"Jerry Maguire"), a one-note caricature character -- everybody except Peggy is,
and that, apparently, is Mr. White's point. Peggy studies the relationship
Ms. King's exuberant character has with her fiancee and confirms for herself
that humans are far more deficient and untrustworthy than animals ever could be.
And when her dog Pencil's life changes forever, something just dies within
Peggy. As Carole King sings in her song "Too Late", "something inside just
died . . ." The effects are creepy, and the director White intends for
them to be.
The film is sharpest in its most distressing moments, but weakest almost
everywhere else. Miss Shannon's character is fairly well cultivated, but
some of the situations that she ventures into are more forced. There is a
scene where Peggy goes into an animal extinction compound (for lack of the
proper terminology) and looks angrily at the doomed dogs. She makes an
urgent plea and desperately requests to take on much more than she can chew.
The scene and some of the others which follow it conjure up a melodramatic ping
intended to bring the un-tethered events of a disappointing and unremarkable
film to an abrupt conclusion.
"Year Of The Dog" has its moments, but they are very, very few and very far
between. If anything, the film is a stellar example of its bite being
stronger than its bark. The dog cheers will no doubt be muted, even if the
effect on their human counterparts will not be.
"Year Of The Dog" is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association Of America
for some suggestive references (but there is what some viewers may find to be
mildly disturbing content.) The Paramount Vantage film was released in New
York and Los Angeles last week and opened in various other American cities
today, including San Francisco, and it will expand to several other cities over
the next two or three weeks.
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