BEFORE: Yes, I know this was supposed to be the slot for "Deadpool & Wolverine", with Hugh Jackman carrying over, but that was just a bit obvious, don't you think. I saw a way to cross a couple more films off my list on the way there, so I'm just delaying the review of that big mega-hit for two days while I deal with a couple little indie (?) movies, because eventually everything's got to be watched, right? If I see a way to work in another film or two, things that have been on the list for months, I should seize the opportunity now, before I start running out of slots for the year.
Laura Dern carries over from "The Son".
THE PLOT: A secretary's life changes in unexpected ways after her dog dies.
AFTER: This is the first film directed by Mike White, the guy who co-wrote and starred in "Chuck & Buck" and "The School of Rock" and "The Good Girl" before he became a contestant on both "The Amazing Race" and "Survivor", then he wrote a few more films and is now the writer/director of "The White Lotus" series, which I don't watch. But I know him from the other things, like as the screenwriter for "Beatriz at Dinner" and 'Pitch Perfect 3" and "The One and Only Ivan". Some writers just seem to be everywhere, but I guess there must be people who write one screenplay and then get out of the business, it stands to reason.
Mike White wrote this film after the death of a stray cat that lived behind his house, one that he had grown attached to, and the death of the cat made him depressed and as a result he fell behind in his writing work, and supposedly a TV show that he was a show-runner for started to suffer, and according to Mike, it got cancelled shortly after that. While he didn't name the show, it could be "Pasadena" or "Cracking Up" or who knows, maybe something else. But the cat dying was changed to a dog dying for this film, because dogs are easier to work with in movies, probably. White said it was easier to depict the emotional connection someone would have with a dog, although he's a cat person, as am I. There are really two types of people, dog people and cat people, and I identify with the latter.
So here an office-worker's beloved dog, Pencil, dies, and Peggy goes through many different feelings and stages as a result. Although she had been forming a friendship with her neighbor,
and even goes on a date with him after Pencil dies, he relates a story about accidentally shooting his own dog while hunting, and so clearly these two are probably not going to end up together. Instead she becomes convinced that her dog ate something poisonous in her neighbor's garage, and that becomes a point of tension between them.
Peggy gets a call from Newt, one of the assistants in the vet's office, who saw her come in with her dying dog, and he also works for the SPCA, and he offers her a replacement dog to adopt, one that he has been training (poorly) and one he can't keep because he already has three dogs. Peggy accepts this dog, Valentine, to fill the void in her life, however Valentine has behavior problems and even bites her at one point. But she keeps up the dog's training with Newt, and grows closer to him as a result. However, Newt claims to be celibate and doesn't seem to have room in his life for a relationship - also, Peggy can't quite figure out if he prefers the company of women, men or dogs for that matter, he's a tough one to read.
Meanwhile, Peggy starts to get more involved with the cause of animal rights, and starts writing fraudulent checks from the corporate account to various activist groups and farms that she finds on the web that claim to function as animal shelters for rescued or discarded animals. What could possibly go wrong with that? Also, over the New Year's break, her brother and his wife take a trip and leave Peggy in charge of house-sitting and babysitting their two kids. Peggy takes her niece and nephew to a farm to show them the animals she "adopted" for them as Christmas gifts - but probably with the office's money. She also discards her sister-in-law's expensive furs, which aren't as fake as she was led to believe.
But when she goes to pick up Valentine from Newt's place, she learns that Valentine got out of control and killed one of his crippled dogs, and so he felt obligated to take Valentine to the pound and have him euthanized. Peggy tries to reach the shelter in time to stop this, but she's too late. Once again making decisions out of grief, she decides to adopt all the dogs out of the shelter, 15 in total - and that's way too many dogs for her to handle. I get it, her heart's in the right place, I might be inclined to do the same, this is why I like to cap the number of cats in the house at one time at two. OK, sometimes three, but three really is the limit.
There's more to the story, but I won't reveal the other twists and turns in Peggy's story. Suffice it to say that the film keeps building to more illogical scenarios, but this kind of makes sense because when you're grieving you might be inclined to make rash decisions, any loss of a family member or a pet can easily depress you to a point where you may want to just burn down your whole situation (literally or figuratively) and just start fresh somewhere else, doing something else. It's an understandable reaction, or over-reaction perhaps, to tragic events. Still, I'm just not sure about how it works, either as a comedy or a black comedy.
Still, I've got a clear-ish theme for the week, starting with "Armageddon Time" and continuing with "The Son" and now this one, and I assume tomorrow's film as well. It's all about loss of family members, once again the chain knows how to properly link films together, even if I don't.
Also starring Molly Shannon (last seen in "I Am Chris Farley"), Regina King (last seen in "Butterfly in the Sky"), Thomas McCarthy (last seen in "Jack Goes Boating"), Josh Pais (last seen in "The Land of Steady Habits"), John C. Reilly (last seen in "Sr."), Peter Sarsgaard (last heard in "The Guilty"), Amy Schlagel (last seen in "Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde"), Zoe Schlagel, Dale Godboldo (last seen in "Lakeview Terrace"), Inara George, Liza Weil (last seen in "Dragonfly"), Jon Shere (last seen in "The Good Girl"), Christy Moore, Audrey Wasilewski (last seen in "Everything Everywhere All at Once"), Brenda Canela (last seen in "Spanglish"), Craig Cackowski (last seen in "Wine Country"), Steve Berg (last seen in "Don't Worry Darling"), Susan Mackin, Chuck Duffy, Sonya Eddy (last seen in "Pee-Wee's Big Holiday"), Ursula Brauner, Giddle Partridge, Benjamin Koesling, Dominik Koesling, Marilyn Zack.
RATING: 4 out of 10 stuffed animals
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