Dog movies. They make us laugh, they make us cry, and they make us squeeze our furry friends a little harder. If cinema reflects our lives, then dogs deserve their spot onscreen, if only because we love them so much.
A Dog’s Purpose cashes in on that bond, wallowing in canines of all shapes and sizes. Bailey (voiced by Josh Gad) is a dog with a habit of reincarnating, and as he comes back as various breeds and genders, he contemplates his larger purpose. It’s a promising concept, opening the film up to examine the array of ways we interact with our canine friends.
Unfortunately, A Dog’s Purpose doesn’t have any depth behind that idea. There’s no real exploration of anything, and considering it frames itself around an existential question, it offers frustratingly trite answers. The film is cute but empty, and even worse, it shortchanges the cross-species relationship its audience loves.
Excuse Its Sentiment
Part of the appeal of dog movies is sharing our love of these animals, basking as a group in the emotionally open headspace they put us in. You’d be silly to walk into A Dog’s Purpose and not expect it to smoosh your cute puppy and sad death buttons, specifically because those are staples of the genre. And smoosh them it does thanks to its reincarnation angle, giving you so many puppies and so many deaths that you might get emotional whiplash.
Like many of its predecessors, A Dog’s Purpose isn’t subtle about its manipulations. The score by Rachel Portman tells you loudly how to feel, and director Lasse Hallström gives the film an ethereal glow. Bailey’s lives are magical gifts, it’s saying, and you better not forget it.
It’s a strong style, and it’s bluntly effective. I’m a notably stoic moviegoer, but even I had watery eyes a few times. It would be unfair to fault the movie for accomplishing its goals, as it undeniably forces you into the emotional space it wants you in.
Cliché Instead Of Insight
That bluntness invades every aspect of A Dog’s Purpose, and its pervasiveness ultimately trips it up. Other dog movies lay it on thick, but the good ones take advantage of your emotional state to sucker punch you with some truths. That’s what makes these movies last in your heart, and there’s nothing in A Dog’s Purpose that lingers.
The human stories, which includes a boy growing up, a lonely cop, and an insecure young woman, are so derivative that they sometimes border on offensive. For instance, the insecure woman includes Bailey on eating binges to cure her sadness until, guess what? She finds a boyfriend! And there’s an even ickier blip later on when Bailey is neglected by a couple who are unfortunately the only representations of their socioeconomic group.
Other narrative clichés are simply groan-inducing in their familiarity, and while that’s a step up from offensiveness, none of the story-lines achieve a feeling of reality. The film doesn’t offer any larger, ahem, purpose to its disparate stories, and without that, your emotional investment is wasted.
Problems With Perspective
The reincarnation premise means that the narrative follows the dog over any human character, and while other films have used that twist, A Dog’s Purpose takes it to the extreme. The book on which it’s based (same name) has the dog narrate the story, and that first-person (first-dog?) perspective is carried over into the film. This allows for some decent one-liners, but Gad’s constant commentary often feels intrusive, and that’s not even the most problematic choice the film makes.
Somewhere along the way it was decided to include shots from the dog’s perspective, which throws the audience into jostling, disorienting bouts of action. While this was likely intended to keep the film’s energy high and to increase the audience’s connection with Bailey, it has the unintended side effect of decreasing the amount of time we see the dog. And the dog, especially when its up to cute hijinks, is what the audience is there for. Depriving people of seeing the adorable dog is sort of baffling, especially since Bailey is too thin of a character to actually connect with.
The perspective also feeds into the film’s weak narrative arc, which more ebbs and flows instead of reaching a true climax. The constant reset of Bailey entering a new life is just plain jarring, and the film never finds a through line to hold it all together.
Controversy
Before anyone knew that A Dog’s Purpose was a flawed film, its chances for success was torpedoed by leaked footage of a distressed German Shepherd onset. While filming one of the movie’s most notable action sequences, a trainer attempted to force the dog into churning water, and, while swimming freely later on, the dog’s head was briefly submerged. The canine actor, named Hercules, was not injured, but the footage goes against the loving tone that the film promotes.
The incident opens up larger questions about the use of animals in filmmaking and whether the American Humane Society, who oversees the safety of animals onset and was present at the time, does their jobs effectively. There are no easy answers to these question, and a balanced exploration would require its own article.
Whether the footage is enough for you to avoid the film altogether is your own choice, but the merits of the film by itself is enough for me to encourage you to skip it.
Conclusion
A Dog’s Purpose has its heart in the right place, trying to give audiences a quaint, old-fashioned good time that ultimately slips into boring manipulation. It’s still got cute dogs, but you’re better off spending two hours cuddling your own pets.
What are you looking for in dog movies? Let us know in the comments!
A Dog’s Purpose is in U.S. theaters now. It will be released in the U.K. on April 14th, 2017. For international release dates, click here.
Does content like this matter to you?
Become a Member and support film journalism. Unlock access to all of Film Inquiry`s great articles. Join a community of like-minded readers who are passionate about cinema - get access to our private members Network, give back to independent filmmakers, and more.