Review of Year of the Dog (2007) by Joshua A — 06 Feb 2013

I read an article about this film the day before watching it, which only built up the potential of it in my mind, therefore failing to meet said potential upon viewing it.

The problem with this film is that it's just not that interesting as a whole. Whereas White could have gone down one path he chose another, less funny and certainly less enjoyable one.

I was led to believe this film was more about Shannon's character losing her pet dog after he died from poisoning, and then embarking on making a lasting relationship with a guy, as this seems to be a central issue in the movie; that everyone around her is "normal" and in relationships. This does not eventuate however as White decides to focus on animal cruelty and has way too many scenes of Shannon crying; looking at websites crying, sitting at the chicken farm crying... it was quite boring and repetitive to watch.

I actually enjoyed Shannon's performance for the most part and felt there was a quirky character lurking in there somewhere, had it not been for a pretty uneven screenplay we might have been able to see a bit more of her.

A great supporting cast as well, her brother and sister in law are great and bring a lot of the comedy throughout the film as the overly neurotic parents. John C. Reilly is also great as the next door neighbor she suspects of intentionally poisoning her dog.

I enjoy White's sense of humour as I have before in hits like Orange County and School of Rock that he wrote. He writes a very subtle type of humour that you are at first unsure of, but it gradually creeps up on you and the more you think about the situation he has written his characters into, the more you discover how hilarious it is. Perhaps I felt the direction he chose to take Peggy in with this film was a little too preachy and on the whole uninteresting to me personally.

There are handfuls of wonderful elements to this film and overall it was captivating and entertaining, but it just lacked a certain punch that could have made it just that little bit better.