Review of Year of the Dog (2007) by Moya W — 22 Mar 2010

Y is for Year of the Dog.

Peggy Spade (Molly Shannon) has an idyllic life: a winning personality, a good corporate job, her family nearby, and above all, her pet dog Pencil. When he dies after ingesting something in her neighbor's garage, Peggy is devastated. The neighbor (John C. Reilly) does everything he can to make it up to her - including hitting on her - but in the end, she only finds consolation when Newt (Peter Saarsgard), a kind soul at the SPCA, finds her a new dog, Valentine. He offers to train Valentine, and for a while Peggy and Newt seem to be hitting it off. But in the end, they're both just dog people, not people people, and they give up on attempting normalcy. Meanwhile, Newt's influences start to trickle down to other parts of Peggy's once-simple life. She becomes a vegan, takes up animal rights causes at work, and even destroys her sister-in-law's furs. Only when she adopts 15 dogs, loses her job for embezzlement, and tries to kill her neighbor with a hunting knife does it start to become clear that something is amiss with Peggy. After her family tries to give her "the help she needs", she quits her former life for good and joins the animal rights movement for real.

I'm not sure what this film means because I can't ever tell whether the film takes its themes seriously or not. I tend to think it does, but since I think they're bordering on preposterous, the whole film ends up making a huge disconnect. The acting is not good, and given what should be a remarkably funny cast, I'd be forcing it to call this a comedy. This is a message film, pure and simple, and the message is a bit off the deep end for me. I found the plot ridiculous and the characters distinctly unsympathetic.

Overall, definitely an indie film, and sadly one that prefers to beat you over the head with its message rather than try to win you over by being an even remotely good viewing experience.