Appalling. Even those who go for drippy Boy and his Dog stories (here an adult with dreams of Formula One racing) have limits on just how much soggy manipulation & cheap sentiment they can take.* Director Simon Curtis, who followed this with a pair of harmless DOWNTON ABBEY pics, seems able enough, but this is an embarrassment from its wet nose to its floppy tail. Milo Ventimiglia, a car mechanic trying to move into professional racing, adopts a puppy on a whim, unaware his golden retriever, voiced as a croaky old soul by Kevin Costner, is a fount of cracker-barrel commonsense, user-friendly philosophy and medical expertise. Lucky for Milo, he can’t hear the loyal pooch rattle on; we’re less lucky. Enzo (that’s the dog’s name, as in Ferrari) narrates incessantly, and is full of shit, metaphorically and literally. (Gary Cole’s mean FIL gets the mess on his new white carpet. ‘Good dog.’) With story beats courtesy of some over-priced film school, the tears and triumphs come with monotonous regularity, but can’t hide a certain awkwardness from the cast who, to their credit, can smell the equivalent of a Hallmark film as surely as a dog can smell a rotisserie chicken thru a paper bag. (As wife/mother, Amanda Seyfried gets off easy, coming in late/leaving early.) And just to add insult to injury, the film sends us home with an uplifting hint of reincarnation. Enzo Lives!
WATCH THIS, NOT THAT: It’s always had something of a rotten rep, but Tom Hanks’ TURNER & HOOCH/’89 is a pretty irresistible (adult) boy and his dog film. (Lots of drool, though.)
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