DVD / VOD

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This article was published 04/05/2017 (3396 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For locals who worked on the set of A Dog’s Purpose in 2015, the promise of “outtakes” on the Blu-ray edition may cause a sinking feeling.

Does a cellphone-shot outtake of a dog reluctant to dive in a turbulent pool qualify as an outtake?

Evidently, most audiences didn’t buy into the animal cruelty narrative that TMZ-broadcast footage was selling back in January. The movie ultimately grossed in the neighborhood of US$185 million worldwide, which is in the same ballpark as the locally lensed Shall We Dance?, which grossed US$170 million worldwide back in 2004.

On the DVD, the outtakes mostly consist of dogs being joyfully unpredictable on set. An additional doc about the production — titled Lights, Camera, Woof! — suggests that while shooting with dogs required a lot of patience, the cast and crew exercised it freely.

It would pretty much have to be a requirement for a film that assumes the perspective of its canine hero — actually several canine heroes, all sharing a single consciousness. (The reincarnation theme is never really explicated; we’re just invited to go along for the ride.) A stray pup is born. He is caught by dog catchers. We don’t see what happens after that, but we assume the worst because soon the pup is born again in 1962, this time as a red retriever. The dog escapes a puppy mill and eventually finds a home with a youngster named Ethan (Bryce Gheisar), who falls for the pooch and is allowed to keep it with the approval of his doting mom (Juliet Rylance) and a certain amount of resentful resignation on the part of his alcoholic dad (Luke Kirby).

Years pass. Bailey the dog is a confused witness to shifting relationships within the family, including a marital breakup. He also sniffs out biological changes in the now teen Ethan (KJ Apa) as he courts the lovely Hannah (Britt Robertson). When Bailey starts to show signs of age… well, have Kleenex on hand.

Subsequently, Bailey is born into the body of a female police dog, now named Ellie, trained and partnered with a lonely cop, Carlos (John Ortiz). In yet another incarnation, Bailey becomes a Corgi named Tino, observing while his student owner Maya (Kirby Howell-Baptiste) overcomes a pathological shyness to allow a fellow dog-lover (Pooch Hall) into her life.

It all leads to yet a climax in which Bailey, now in the body of a shamefully neglected St. Bernard/Australian sheepdog mutt named Buddy, makes his way to a familiar farm where he becomes reacquainted with Ethan (Dennis Quaid), now a crusty old guy in need of a push towards his long-ago girlfriend (Peggy Lipton).

Hallstrom is a seasoned hand at tear-jerking melodrama (Dear John, Safe Haven) but less assured in the realm of comedy, one reason why the film’s frequent moments of canine slapstick tend to fall flat. The movie requires an even ratio of laughter to tears, but it weighs heavier on the melancholy side.

But the film’s good intentions count and the film succeeds in giving the audience a way to deeply consider canine consciousness.

★★★1/2 out of five

randall.king@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @FreepKing