‘Dog’s Way Home’ loses scent on journey
In “A Dog’s Way Home,” a follow-up to the controversial 2017 film “A Dog’s Purpose,” a dog narrates in the voice of Bryce Dallas Howard. Only we in the audience hear the thoughts of Bella, the mixed-breed dog who is the film’s protagonist and narrator. Let me tell you, it is a mixed blessing, if not breed, to hear the co-star of “Jurassic World” over-emote egregiously as a canine. Bella is born on the bad side of doggie town in Denver, where pit bulls are banned. That is, under a collapsed house, where puppies share space with kittens. After Bella’s mother dog is captured by the town dog catcher (John Cassini) because she and Bella may be part pit bull, Bella — who be named until she is adopted by animal lover, animal rights advocate and med student Lucas (Jonah HauerKing, who has the height and cartoon-ready face of the next Superman) — is weaned by a mother cat and is happy for a time. But Bella is vastly happier after she meets Lucas, who comes to feed the animals and fight with a contractor (Brian Markinson), who has a per- mit to demolish the property. Lucas adopts Bella in part for his mother, Terri (a sadfaced Ashley Judd), an Iraq War vet. Lucas and Terri both work at the nearby Veterans Affairs office, where Bella becomes a hit with the troubled vets in therapy. After Bella is captured by the animal control officer, Lucas agrees to let her be kept for a time by the aunt and uncle of his med student girlfriend, Olivia (Alexandra Shipp, “X-Men: Apocawon’t lypse”), in New Mexico. But in New Mexico, Bella runs off. At this point, Bella embarks upon a journey to try to find her way across more than 400 mountainous miles back to Lucas. During this time, Bella takes up with a bad crowd led by a mutt named “Crazy Hair” and will wean an orphaned cougar named Big Kitten. Later, Bella will encounter a pack of wolves. Kids will like the film. But to me, when “A Dog’s Way Home” wasn’t saccharine, it was maudlin. Computergenerated effects to depict Big Kitten are not good. Bella refers to humans such as her beloved Lucas as “persons.” She knows she is a dog, and wishes only to make her “person” happy and be with him or her. I only wished the “person” writing this were somewhere else. Like “A Dog’s Purpose,” a film in which the actors are — I can say without fear of contradiction or scandal — a bunch of animals, “A Dog’s Way Home,” which was directed by Charles Martin Smith (“Air Bud”) and features a pop song every 15 minutes, is based on a work by award-winning author W. Bruce Cameron. The first film became the subject of scrutiny when a video was released depicting what looked like animal abuse on the set. Another follow-up, titled “A Dog’s Journey,” is scheduled for release in August. In time for my vacation?