Writer/Director Todd Solondz lifts the character from his 1995 coming-of-age film “Welcome to the Dollhouse”, for his newest movie “Wiener-Dog”. The movie is a dark, starkly funny, four-part story of a single dog and the many different people she touches over her short lifetime. The wiener-dog starts out teaching a young boy, named Remi (Keaton Nigel Cook), some contorted life lessons before being taken in by a compassionate veteranarian tech named Dawn Wiener (Greta Gerwig). Dawn reunites with someone from her past and sets off on a road trip. After leaving Dawn’s household, the dog encounters a floundering film professor in Dave Schmerz (Danny Devito), who is dealing with backlash from the college he teaches at, based on his constant negativity. The final owner of the dog is Nana (Ellen Burstyn), an elderly woman who lives with her caregiver Yvette (Marcella Lowery), who’s granddaughter Zoe (Zosia Mamet) is coming to visit her for the the first time in ages, with a secret of her own. “Wiener-Dog” is rated R for language and some disturbing content.
Todd Solondz has always had a very brutal sense of humor when it comes to the movies that he orchestrates. His delivery in his greatest achievements like “Happiness” and “Storytelling” are very somber, with a dry delivery that only appeals to his most dedicated of audiences. My personal opinion on his work? It’s simply not for me. There’s enough in “Wiener-Dog” to appreciate the kind of themes and elements to storytelling that Solondz was going for, but the film is muddled down by a very lifeless tone in delivery, and offered very few moments of life or enjoyment to invest myself into. The story uses a four-part narrative in the life of one pup who connects all of the stories together, but it’s clear to see midway through the movie how this convenient form of transition tends to fall apart, and the movie becomes more about its characters and their melodramatic lives, than that of the title character who’s commentary on life and humans as a whole was the single most fascinating element of the movie for me. It’s social commentary at its finest, but the overall presentation leaves much to be desired.
Solondz reveals through the most original of sources how careless we are as human beings to the possessions and materials that we take for granted. Throughout the movie, the idea of this animal going through different methods of neglect and passing of the owners, really made me feel great sorrow inside for the animal lover in all of us. Is it manipulative? Yes, but that doesn’t mean that this film won’t tug at the very heartstrings of this dog’s lifetime journey just to find a place where he belongs and can be loved. The arc that hit for me was the opening fifteen minutes, in which this rich family brings in a dog for their son, only to grow tired of the investment that they must make for him, within a few days. The dog essentially goes from one prison to the next after he is traded off like a baseball card, and it made me feel great displeasure with the human race, for how cruel we can truly be. This is what’s right with Solondz story, but what’s wrong is how smooth the transition can be from arc-to-arc, as the story’s continuity takes a brutal blow. From owners one-to-two and two-to-three, the transitions flow smoothly, with the dog’s trading being beautifully well documented and paced timely. For the final two owners, the movie lost me in describing how this wonderful dog ended up on their doorsteps. It almost feels like the movie’s rushed 83 minute length is missing a scene or two entailing how our title character made it to this point. With the scenes and human actors changing every twenty minutes, the screenplay needs a smooth transition to justify bringing these four stories together, and without it, these are just four in-cohesive plots that never touch hands.
The comedy is barely there, making me laugh only a single time throughout the movie, and that was during a throwaway line that I’ve already heard a hundred other times in better films. With Solondz style of humor, there’s always that feeling of a depressed human being who uses humor to poke fun at some of life’s greatest of insensitivities, and this feels a little worn out by this point. If you are going to give any movie of his a chance, I recommend “Happiness”, as the irony of a cruel joke by life goes much further than just a clever title. For “Wiener-Dog”, everything is just played completely dry, almost to the point of a drama over-reaching the comedic aspects.
The musical score is the same repeated number throughout the movie. When played once, it conjures up a range of emotional feelings, but once it was played four or five times, I couldn’t help but feel annoyed and angered at what little chances were taken to change up the mood and tempo for the second half of the movie. Because of what little musical backgrounds there are, the movie’s attitude stays at the same level throughout, never elevating itself to overcome the metaphorical mud that we lay in, from the very opening shot.
There is a solid cast here, that showcases the best of their abilities within these walls that Todd constructs, and some of them make this an enjoyable sit. Ellen Burstyn is as dry as toast, but her delivery translates well to the audience a woman who has been left to rot by her supposed loving family. I greatly enjoyed her “No-thrills” kind of lifestyle, and the naming of the dog Cancer certainly communicates to the audience where we’re going with this one early on. Danny Devito also gives the movie a great twenty minutes of the “Youth Vs Aged” debate that makes our world go round. This is Devito’s most unorthodox performance in the last ten years, and a lot of that is because he allows himself to feel the emotions that have otherwise been bottled up within over thirty years of comic acting. He can still be an ACTOR, and Solondz dry stick gives him the greatest of opportunities. I enjoyed Greta Gerwig in this movie, despite being one of the serious actors in the movie. I still feel she is better suited as a comic actress, but her roles in this and “Maggie’s Plan” this year have opened my eyes to a young woman with great timing in any drama. Here, she dons the glasses and nerdy look, searching for something from her past that seemed elusive until now. She’s the softest heart in a movie full of selfish people.
The ending of this movie, you may or may not have heard about. The best thing I can tell you is if you are sensitive with animal’s well-being, this won’t be the movie for you. Even more so, the film’s insensitive delivery of such content is a little overwhelming in a crushing of hope for a character that we follow for nearly an hour-and-a-half. The last scene in a movie is very important, especially for casual moviegoers, because it is your final taste and therefore your final grade in a movie’s presentation. I think the last scene of this movie will turn a lot of people off to it, and I can certainly understand why. If you wish to see it after everything I’ve told you, stand tough.
Overall, “Wiener-Dog” took some creative chances in its four-arc method of storytelling, but the splash of downtrodden is more of the same from a director who bathes in it. The movie feels like more of the same, never evolving a different voice for real-life atmospheres or tones for the clinically depressed. It’s played a little too carefully for my taste, and the clever observations doesn’t exactly give us the most satisfying of answers in the end. Unnerving, not humorous.
5/10