Year of the Dog
Studio: Paramount Vantage
Rated: PG-13
Cast: Molly Shannon, Peter Sarsgaard
Director: Mike White
WorkNameSort: Year of the Dog
Our Rating: 2.00
This cautionary tale-turned-inspirational hokum could have been a fine comedic pairing: Mike White, screenwriting mastermind behind Freaks and Geeks and The School of Rock writing a star vehicle for Molly Shannon. But it’s a â?¦ drama? Huh? Shannon stars as Peggy, a secretary whose loving dog dies from poison ingestion. Influenced by Peter Sarsgaard’s Newt, a dog adopter who works at the local animal hospital, Peggy becomes an obsessed animal-rights activist whose behavior grows more and more irrational and disturbing. Thrusting homeless pets onto her compliant friends leads to destroying her sister-in-law’s furs, dragging her niece to a slaughterhouse, even attempting murder. Certainly there’s something to be said about militaristic veganism; Peggy’s attempts to indoctrinate everyone into her ideology are just as wrong as that Pentecostal minister’s evangelical crusading in Jesus Camp. But by the time Year of the Dog decides it has something to say, you’ll already be bored by the 45 minutes of ineffectual torpor that precedes it. As a dramatic force, Shannon holds up far better than White, who’s never seemed more out of his element.
This article appears in Apr 25 – May 1, 2007.