Review of Fluke (1995) by Jamie L — 14 Sep 2008

It's a great moment when a film TRULY surprises you, when you walk in with expectations (or no assumptions at all for that matter) and what you get hits you completely from blind side. The last time a film took me by surprise was over a decade ago, when I went on my own to see a midday session of Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels without any idea of what it was about. Come to think of it, that was probably the last movie that I knew little about - since then it's a daily reaping of trailers, reviews and snapshots, to the point where I (and you suckers too) know too much about a film to watch it clean, clear, like a kid.

I made the same assumptions about this movie when it came out, saw the cover of a cutsie dog in shoes, and figured it for another Milo & Otis, Air Bud, or even (hopefully) a decent Shaggy Dog remake. I think after Because Of Winn-Dixie I lost my faith in animal movies there for a while. That freakin' film had Dave Matthews (a god with a guitar!) and AnnaSophia Robb for pete's sake (as well as Dakota Fanning's little sister), so how it went limp I don't know. 'Animal' movies are supposed to portray coming of age and hard-learnt-life-lesson stories better than most, and they went off the rails there for a while, probably because of poor interpretations from the studios.

But the thing is - and very happy to report this - Fluke is SO not another of these disappointing animal films. Don't get me wrong, should probably say off the bat that it's not flawless, and there are a couple of squeashy cringey cutsey moments, but they're easily overshadowed by what is a fantastic story. The film's based on a short story by James Herbert, who - and correct me if I'm wrong - is a horror writer (I kind of remember the cover of The Rats always creeping me out at Dymocks). But when you look at Stephen King and even Roald Dahl, you can find little short black gems, and (SPOILER AHEAD) the idea of a guy being reincarnated as a dog as punishment for wasting his life as a human doesn't seem so surprising in a dark and twisted way.

The film obviously doesn't play like that though, it's not really until the end that the painful twist comes, and when it does, oh man what a sting. And it's slight genius that they've used Eric Stoltz as the 'villian' in this film, he plays such a great jerk (there was a period there when they kind of type-cast him as an asshole, but he plays the aloof, quirky cool guy you always want around so much better - see my review of Kicking and Screaming when I eventually get it up). And I'll be big enough to admit it, the ending of this film, the way they string it together, with the music, and the cemetery..... it caused my face to leak. I guess on a personal level this film hit a real chord for me. I grew up with a gigantic black german shepherd who was more a parent to me than anyone in my life, and I subscribe to the belief that your pets find you rather than vice-versa, that your animal is your soul-mate, something expounded on in Phillip Pullman's Dark Materials trilogy. I remember hearing on some tv show that even when animals die they continue to stand by their masters' side, and there was this image of a dog's ghost still following some old guy around - really stuck with me.

So I don't know if this film does it's source material justice, but do yourself a favour: on your way home tonight, pick up a copy of this movie, grab someone you actually give a crap about, watch this surprising film that has Ron Perlman at his ugliest (seriously, love the guy, but it really says something when he looks better dressed as Hellboy than himself), and prepare to have your compass turned upside down.