(Paramount, 2007, 96 minutes) - add this title to your Netflix queue
Let me warn you: the title of this strange but moving film is "Year of the Dog." Not "Year of the Dogs and Dog Owners Who Live Happily Ever After." If you remember that writer-director Mike White wrote both the rollicking "School of Rock" and the more dark than funny "The Good Girl" as you power up this well-produced DVD, you'll be prepared.
Prepared is what our heroine, administrative assistant Peggy (an exquisitely understated Molly Shannon) is not when her beloved beagle Pencil dies unexpectedly. Peggy's grief over the death of Pencil puts her in a tailspin that nobody seems to understand. Not her stuffy, money-obsessed boss Robin (Josh Pais), not Peggy's best pal and office mate Layla (Regina King), and, most especially, not Peggy's child-crazy brother and sister-in-law (Tom McCarthy and Laura Dern), who don't even bother to put up Peggy's Christmas card—which features a picture of her and Pencil, in matching Santa hats, natch. Peggy's grief is only compounded by the prevailing attitude that "all" she lost was a dog.
Peggy's emotional rebirth begins when she meets two profoundly dissimilar men: her neighbor Al, a passionate hunter (John C. Reilly, in full lummox mode), and Newt, a sexually ambiguous vegan and professional dog rescuer (Peter Sarsgaard, a hoot). These encounters set Peggy on a sometimes tragic, often comic quest to reconnect to the animal world. Vegan cupcakes and ill-fated adoptions feature prominently.
From beginning to end, Mike White's sharp eye catches what is both annoying—and moving—about people who discover a profound bond with animals. (And what animals! The film is chock full of fantastic dog actors, including a differently-abled Corgi and an incontinent Westie ).
While Peggy's journey from grief back to life looks nothing like a conventional chick flick, it is clear, by the film's end, that she has found a very deep love.
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