A DOG’S PURPOSE (PG)
Director: Lasse Hallstrom (Hachi: A Dog’s Tale) Starring: Britt Robertson, KJ Apa, John Ortiz, Dennis Quaid, Peggy Lipton and the voice of Josh Gad. Rating: ARE you the type of moviegoer who will happily howl away at the sight of a cute canine carking it?
Have you found yourself unable to sleep at night, distressed by the thought there might never, ever be another Marley & Me?
Rest easy. Here is a movie that will play go fetch with your emotions for as long as you want.
And for those shopping on a tight value-formisery leash, there are plenty of deceased dogs for everyone to look and sook at.
There is not just the one pooch passing away in A Dog’s Purpose. There are at least four of them. Maybe more.
Tears will undoubtedly be jerked, but your brain will be unceremoniously twerked upon by a blandly bonkers story of repeat reincarnations.
In this thematically garbled adaptation of the book by W. Bruce Cameron, the heart, soul and mind of the same dog will be passed along from hound to hound over the space of 40 years or so.
In the 1960s, Bailey is a peppy little red retriever. His best friend is a kid with a drunky dad.
Whenever the old man is off on a bender, Bailey and the boy have a great time of it. Then the boy grows up, goes off to college, and Bailey pretty much dies of a broken heart.
Don’t get too upset though. This wet tale has only just started wagging. In the next decade, Bailey will soon return as a female German shepherd named Ellie, who works as a police dog in the big smoke. By the end of the 1980s, Bailey is back to being a bloke, assuming the irresistibly diminutive form of a Pembroke Welsh corgi named Tino.
After yet another four-legged funeral later down the track, Bailey is a big ol’ mangy mutt of a thing called Waffles.
Bailey’s deepest philosophical thoughts are given playful voice by actor Josh Gad, a gimmick which doesn’t quite go the distance here.
Neither does A Dog’s Purpose as a whole, especially if you’ve built up a resistance over time to one of the most manipulative and reliable pathos powerplays in the movie business: the expiration of a pet.