With all its flaws, simplistic characters and expectations (hopes?) of emotional manipulation, “A Dog’s Purpose” dares people to stop thinking. Yes, it shamelessly plays with your emotions, but you get a bit misty, anyway. I hate to say it, but it’s one time when all the manufactured drama and heartstring-tugging works.
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The movie picks up some steam during its last act, in which Dennis Quaid finally appears, where our shaggy hero finds himself in a bad situation. There are a couple more chapters that are mostly forgettable, including one in which Bailey finds himself as a female named Ellie, with predictable gender jokes included. But while the leaked video was disturbing, it didn’t really affect how I watched the scene in the film, mostly because I was too busy thinking how unlikely the scene in the movie was.
The scene, unfortunately, is a pivotal one. Accounts vary as to why it happened, but it has prompted boycott threats and general outrage. Leaked footage from the film set, which has been viewed by millions on the internet, shows a trainer forcing the actor dog into a pool, obviously against its will. His third incarnation is the one everyone has been talking about, as it involves a German Shepherd police dog, Tino, who jumps into raging water to save a kidnapped girl. The years advance with Bailey by Ethan’s side, sharing all his boyish triumphs and troubles, until Ethan goes away to college. The second chapter finds Bailey in the late 1950s, early ’60s in a small rural town, where he’s adopted by Ethan, an only child with the clichéd angel of a mother and stern, possessed-by-his-job, alcoholic father. Get it from the Apple app store or the Google Play store.
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Reading this on your phone? Stay up to date on Bay Area and Silicon Valley news with our new, free mobile app. The audience, in turn, is supposed to realize life isn’t as complicated as we make it, which doesn’t really ring true. The dog witnesses the requisite jumble of human troubles and offers simple, Forrest Gump-ish observations, which one would expect, since, you know, he’s a dog. Knowing he’s coming back helps soften the blow every time he gets to the end of a life, though it’s still tear-jerking and manipulative. We follow until the end of his life and then as he is serially reincarnated as several different breeds of dog. It’s like watching an extended episode of “Lassie” from the 1950s, only the dog talks to himself and has a decent sense of humor.
For the most part, Bailey is charming and sweet. But when the humans in the film come off as uncomplicated as the dog, things don’t add up. The dog Bailey has a running inner dialogue (voiced by Josh Gad) about life the smells, the sights, why he loves his human, why he loves food, etc. Aww… Ethan (KJ Apa) hangs out with Bailey in “A Dog’s Purpose.” Universal Studios Like when a dog joyfully destroys a room. There are times when the film hits home, especially when director Lasse Hallstrom (no, not a first-name typo) steers the movie into territory we recognize. Review: 'A Dog's Purpose' - scandal doesn't make movie worse