Review

A Dog's Purpose

A Dog’s Purpose follows a canine soul (voiced by Josh Gad) through several incarnations and masters.
A Dog’s Purpose follows a canine soul (voiced by Josh Gad) through several incarnations and masters.

Even without the viral video haunting this film like a determined bloodhound, A Dog's Purpose might come off more as a dog's breakfast instead of a satisfying film. Comcast shareholders are probably sweating bullets trying to figure out how to get animal lovers to see a movie associated with the horrific (but edited) TMZ clip apparently showing a German shepherd forced into a current of rushing water.

Since the clip has gone viral, director Lasse Hallstrom (My Life as a Dog, The Cider House Rules) and star Josh Gad, neither of whom were apparently on site when the incident occurred, have condemned what sure looks like abuse. Still, it's difficult to watch the finished film without thinking of the shepherd's welfare.

A Dog’s Purpose

78 Cast: voice of Josh Gad, KJ Apa, Juliet Rylance, Luke Kirby, Bryce Gheisar, John Ortiz, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Pooch Hall, Dennis Quaid, Peggy Lipton, Nicole LaPlaca

Director: Lasse Hallstrom

Rating: PG, for thematic elements and some peril

Running time: 2 hours

A Dog's Purpose has a considerably warmer heart than the trainer, but a convoluted narrative prevents the talented human and canine thespians who populate this movie from fetching our emotions. It probably doesn't help that there really isn't a central character. Gad is actually the voice of the soul of a series of dogs who get reincarnated into a series of pooches who are different breeds and even different sexes. The script has a half-dozen screenwriters, including original novelist W. Bruce Cameron (8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter). As a result, the movie feels less like it's from the point of view of a dog and more like the vantage point of a child with Attention Deficit Disorder.

It isn't until the second incarnation that any human or animal characters make much of an impression. A boy named Ethan (Bryce Gheisar) and his mother (Juliet Rylance) goad Dad (Luke Kirby) into adopting the current version of the dog, even though the father clearly resents the mess and the maintenance associated with the animal.

Currently named Bailey, he witnesses Ethan becoming a teen (KJ Apa) and meeting his high school crush (Britt Robertson) and Dad slipping into alcoholism. That in itself might have made a worthwhile film, but there are three or four incarnations to come, and each feels a little too truncated to make much of an impression. While Gad's existential musings are from a canine point of view, there's nothing deep enough to merit the jabbering.

Some of the other humans include a college student named Maya (Kirby Howell-Baptiste), an understandably glum Chicago cop (John Ortiz), a blue collar woman (Nicole LaPlaca) and the middle-aged version of Ethan (Dennis Quaid).

While the animals are astonishingly expressive, and the humans don't seem to mind being upstaged by their four-legged co-stars, keeping track of the multigenerational, geographically diverse environments gets as tiring as playing fetch with an overly excited retriever. Terry Stacey's photography can be as warm and inviting as a lap dog, but it's difficult to invest in any particular dog when we know it's going to come back to life like a video game character.

The jury is out on what happened in that TMZ video, but the film has an unenviable burden of overcoming the bad PR. It's too bad the dog in the video can't wake up to a better life.

MovieStyle on 01/27/2017

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