A delightful canine caper made with heart and soul
Review A Dog’s Way Home (PG, 96 mins) Directed by Charles Martin Smith Reviewed by Graeme Tuckett ★★★★
So here’s a thing. Back in the 1990s, the city of Denver passed a bylaw banning pitbulls. Which is probably worth knowing, should you ever find yourself in the mile-high city with an adopted hound of unprovable ancestry and you have fallen foul of a spiteful property developer – why is it so often a property developer who is the villain in a kid’s movie? One who wants to force you to leave town or be parted from your beloved kurı¯. Which is the fate that befalls Bella, the unsinkable mutt around which A Dog’s Way Home revolves.
After a thankfully brief opening stanza – boy-meets-puppy, puppy grows up, boy also meets girl etc – wee Bella is relocated 400 miles to New Mexico for her own safety. After which, acts two and three of A Dog’s Way Home pretty much write themselves.
Still, predictability is the least of any film’s flaws.
And for this film’s presumed audience of the very young and the mildly concussed, it’ll still contain enough scrapes and detours to keep everyone engaged.
What matters more, to me at least, is a film’s nga¯ kau – the heart and soul with which it was assembled. And at that, A Dog’s Way Home isa very, very likable piece of work.
There’s friendliness and generosity at work here, as well as an unexpectedly impassioned plea on behalf of America’s homeless and military veterans. It ain’t Leave No Trace, but there is a message here, and it’s one worth sharing. And then there’s the casting. Regular readers will know I could listen to Bryce Dallas-Howard
(Gold) reading the phonebook and call that a day well-spent. So having her as the voice of Bella earns an easy star from yours truly. Jonah Hauer-King (Postcards
From London) is fine as Lucas, Bella’s human. And Ashley Judd
(Insurgent) finds a couple of nice moments as Lucas’ mum. A late run-on from Wes Studi (The Last of
the Mohicans) is already top of my 2019 list of things-I-wasn’texpecting-in-a-movie-about-a-lostdog. So welcome, A Dog’s Way
Home. You’re a competent, big hearted and occasionally quite charming film. There’s room on the couch for you at my place any time.