Through many lives and owners, a canine searches for “A Dog’s Purpose”. Based on the beloved bestselling novel by W. Bruce Cameron, “A Dog’s Purpose,” from director Lasse Hallström shares the soulful and surprising story of one devoted dog (voiced by Josh Gad) who finds the meaning of his own existence through the lives of the humans he teaches to laugh and love. Through his many adventures and life lessons, the furry friend inches one step closer to finding meaning for life’s many different roads of reincarnation. The family film told from the dog’s perspective also stars Dennis Quaid, Peggy Lipton, Britt Robertson, K.J. Apa, Juilet Rylance, Luke Kirby, John Ortiz and Pooch Hall. It is rated PG for thematic elements and situational peril.
A Dog’s Purpose is a movie that has been getting beaten down in the media lately, after a TMZ story broke the news that dogs on the set were being suspiciously treated and even in danger for one specific stunt scene in the movie. When this broke, it didn’t surprise me because I view these animal movies more time than not as manipulative and dishonest. However, I’m a critic first, and I can accurately say that this movie surprised me in more ways than one for how maturely it handled its material. That’s not to say that A Dog’s Purpose won me over completely to the point of me giving it a pass, but as far as bad movies go, it’s quite harmless. There’s still that air of manipulation for what this movie entails to use its audience for something like animal deaths. This shouldn’t come as a spoiler to anyone, but there’s more than one dog death in this movie, considering it centers around reincarnation, and that fact alone opened my eyes slowly to the concept of Hallstrom’s film offering a mature circumference to equal that of the kid audience that this thing easily sinks its hooks into.
The story is very minimal for what transpires on screen. Although we are given some credible voice narration by Gad to narrate our way through the very thoughts and feels of our furry protagonist, there’s very little sense on how or where the dog is telling this story from to make sense of it. The film also plays everything pretty one-note on its cycle of repetition through four different stories in this movie. At 95 minutes in run time, this makes for a very pinched and confined script that does start to run out of gas midway through, when you realize you’re seeing the same formula being played out with interchangeable faces. The film’s opening story arc with Bailey the dog meeting little boy Ethan, is definitely given the most amount of screen time and character development to hammer home its importance in this picture. I would be lying if I said that this arc didn’t give me goosebumps through my investment within the characters of this first act. Unfortunately, due to time constraints, the opening half hour is as good as it will ever get. Through some abruptly fast-forwarded exposition, we are in and out of three different homes over the course of the second act, without ever solidifying the relevance or even building something as meaningful as the original. I found myself struggling to stay invested over this time, and while this is a movie about the many lives of this dog, it does start to weigh itself down vitally with repetition for formula that never changes its structure or ups the ante in the slightest.
On a note of positivity, this movie does attack some of the more risky material with children’s movies that I have seen in a long time. The very idea of reincarnation is one that can be considered in religious subtext, but thankfully the movie never preaches a gospel or hidden agenda within its walls. This is very much a “What you see is what you get” kind of offering, and that is something that I valued greatly in my overall experience. Besides reincarnation, the film is also very unapologetic with how it shoots and documents the treatment of animals by their human counterparts. This is one of those movies that really got under my skin for just how easy it is to forget about the most important member of a family, and its depiction for how these animals are literally plucked from birth to serve a purpose to a higher master is one that only conjured up great empathy from me, as sometimes the importance of animals in general is vastly overlooked. I was also happy that the movie didn’t try to relate to the audience that all dog owners are great dog owners, like other animal movies that paint a deceitful picture. One of the four owners represented in this movie is very unloving and selfish when it comes to what they seek from this canine, but it’s importantly informative to showcase that (like children) not every life is pleasant with these lovable creatures. Sometimes their drafting doesn’t work for the best, and it could hammer home the reality of a life wasted if reincarnation doesn’t exist like it does in this movie.
As for the overall production of the movie, there’s not a lot to gloat or talk about. This is very much a simplistic presentation that never overwhelms itself by style over substance in the most dramatic of methods. There are a lot of POV angles from the dog’s eye level, and thankfully it never gets dizzying or distasteful after an overabundance of it. The editing and framing are passable with very little risks taken, and a visual representation of each decade depicted is certainly a clever enough idea if this movie had the budget to go all the way with it. As representation, there really is the bare minimum of a song from that decade playing, even when the fashion trends and furniture stylings don’t quite level that concept up to par. It’s one of those things that you probably wouldn’t think about with a story that spans easily forty years, but I give kudos to Hallstrom for at least testing the waters for a concept whose bite never quite reaches its bark in cinematic capabilities.
A Dog’s Purpose is surprisingly poignant, sweet and occasionally honest in the very tribulations of man’s best friends. With some stronger storytelling elements, as well as relying less on puppeteering the heartstrings of audience members, and this could’ve been quite the adventurous sit. As it stands, sits and rolls over, A Dog’s Purpose appears to be cementing the bond between human and kleenex through an hour-and-a-half of watery eyes. Too cute to hate, but too stupid to ever quit running into the table of predictability.
5/10