Lassie, Beethoven, Homeward Bound, Hachi, Marley and Me, and All Dogs Go To Heaven. Maybe even Cujo. Dog movies have a long history of either being enjoyable family romps or emotionally devastating dramas where the dog dies in the end. A Dog’s Purpose at first glance gives the impression we are going to see a family film about a Dog maybe discovering his place in life and possibly learning something about his family along the way. Sure, let’s have a bit of that. And then the dog (voiced by Josh Gad) started talking to itself like Dug, the dog from Up. He tells us he is confused but he is born and wants to see the world and find out what everything does and what his purpose in life is. Within two minutes Animal control have thrown him in the back of a van, and everything goes dark, and he’s born again. Yes the dog has been reincarnated as a golden retriever this time and soon ends up settling down with a young boy named Ethan and his family. At this point I thought okay we’ve settled into the family thing, weird reincarnation stuff is over. Nope. The goofy talking continues, the dog ends up being reincarnated into different breeds with different owners all while trying to discover his purpose in life.
The whole thing ends up feeling like a live-action Disney movie that should have gone straight to DVD. Dennis Quaid is promoted as one of the stars but he only shows up for the last 15 minutes to bring a bit of closure to the whole thing. As much as I wanted to hate the film after the first ten minutes, I started to get interested in the lines of the Montgomery family and Ethan himself. We see him grow up and become a success while his father deals with increasingly troublesome alcoholic tendencies over three decades. It’s hard not to get a bit attached to them because they’re well performed and interesting characters, but then we’re asked to focus on the dog instead who will not stop talking to himself. Despite some nice scenes and characters, it’s all over the place and not worth a trip to the cinema. It doesn’t have you breaking down in tears, it doesn’t put a smile on your face and it doesn’t have much for kids to enjoy. In the end the dog does discover his purpose and proceeds to give you his opinion on what our purpose in life is and what the meaning of life is. I would have been much more entertained if it just said “Try and be nice to people, avoid getting fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try to live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.” Or just a big computer screen with 42 written on it.
Hey Atkins! 