We all know the saying, “A dog is a man’s best friend.” And it tracks. Dogs are the best. And they show time and again that they just might be too good for us. Well that notion is put to the test in the aptly named Dog, the Channing Tatum-starring buddy road trip comedy-drama – it’s also Tatum’s directorial debut, as he shares the chair with long time producing partner Reid Carolin (also making his directorial debut).
Tatum plays U.S. Army Ranger Jackson Briggs, waiting for medical clearance to redeploy. But with lingering effects from a brain injury, that seems unlikely at best. Desperate, and willing to do almost anything to curry favor with the decision-making brass, he accepts a seemingly straightforward task. Briggs is to drive an army dog, Lulu, to the funeral of her late handler. Simple enough, right?
But with both Briggs and Lulu suffering from PTSD, the trip becomes anything but simple. Lulu is easily triggered, and being trained for war, her outbreaks can be vicious and dangerous. Couple that with Briggs’ own problems in addition to the PTSD, and the two get off to a rough start.
Dog doesn’t do anything new, but sometimes that doesn’t matter. Like we just saw with Uncharted, hitting the tried-and-true highlights of a well-worn genre can still be effective. Having someone with Channing’s natural charm paired with such an absolute good girl never hurts either. And it’s that pairing that really propels the movie forward. It’s about as predictable as they come, but there’s enough work in the Briggs-Lulu relationship, and how they both help each other heal for their semi-shared trauma to get and keep you emotionally invested the whole time. And that’s the key. Tatum is in (I think) every scene, and Lulu is in almost every scene, so if you don’t buy into them, then it’s not going to work.
Thankfully, though, this role is right in Tatum’s sweet spot. A big lovable goofball with something more beneath the surface than what maybe meets the eye. The guy can create chemistry with anything and anyone, and that extends to the three dogs who played Lulu. He can’t quite get there when it comes to the deeper themes at play here, and that’s ultimately what holds Dog back the most. And Carolin’s screenplay doesn’t really make much of an effort to dig too deep either, which just makes the shortcomings stand out more.
And while that’s a shame, it’s still nice to see a movie take on a subject like PTSD with such a sympathetic angle. Plus, we see the issue from Lulu’s side, and I for one couldn’t tell you one other movie that puts a battle-trained dog front and center in a story like this. Dogs may not be people (though one Portland hippie the pair encounters on their journey might argue that), but they’re still intelligent, complex animals. They’re affected by this stuff too. Even in a mostly lighthearted romp, Dog still gets some important points across, and not every movie can say that.
But ultimately, it all goes back to Briggs and Lulu. They’re endlessly charming and you can’t do anything but root for both of them to find the help they need. Sometimes that help comes from professionals, sometimes it comes from another wounded soul, sometimes both. When you think about how simple Dog is, you can draw some profound conclusions from what it’s trying to say. But you can draw simple ones too. Simple, like a dog really is man’s best friend.
Score: 77/100
