The old girl-and-her-dog story learns some new tricks
she petitioned the Marine Corps to let her adopt him.
As told in the screenplay by Pamela Gray, Annie Mumolo and Tim Lovestedt, Megan joined the Marines somewhat randomly, after the death of a close friend in 2001 left her feeling unhappy and restless. She’s clearly not a people person, but when she applies for dog-handling duties, her superiors start her out with a tin can on a string; more evidence if you needed it that the military is industrious in giving people complexes. (Common plays her commanding officer, one of those loud-boss types whom we gradually learn is all bark.)
Megan eventually graduates to handling a real dog, and soon enough ships out to Ramadi in central Iraq, where she learns there’s a bounty on dog handlers and an even bigger one on female dog handlers. Even Rex’s name is top secret, lest an insurgent call the dog over and kill him, or even kidnap the animal and send him back to base carrying explosives.
Director Gabriela Cowperthwaite, whose credits include the 2013 documentary balances the film’s action and emotional beats nicely, although it must be said that the defining battle shies away from too much gore; The Hurt Dog Locker this isn’t. (That’s not a criticism; it makes the resulting film more kidfriendly, if still quite intense.)
There’s a mild love story here, between Megan and another Marine (Ramon Rodriguez), but it’s really so much story filler. Besides, she’s a Yankees fan and he loves the Mets, so it’ll obviously never work. Dramatically, the crux of the story is the ageold bond between a girl and her dog. And if the film gets a little preachy about it, well, it’s earned its moments of excess.
I’m going to give the same rating as with the understanding that you’ll know which movie I’m referring to when I say: Who’s a good dog?