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Movie Review: 'A Dog's Purpose'

By Bill Wine

KYW Newsradio 1060

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Here's a doggie flick you haven't seen before.

The protagonist pooch is trying to discover his purpose in life over the course of not only multiple owners but several lifetimes as well.

Talk about a new leash on life.

A Dog's Purpose is a family comedy-drama aimed at young kids and dog-owning adults. It's initially about a dog named Bailey, voiced by Josh Gad, who is reincarnated as four other canines of different breeds over the twentieth century's latter decades.

 

2½
(2½ stars out of 4)

 

Bailey forms an unbreakable bond with a kindred spirit named Ethan, played by Bryce Gheisar. As the boy grows into a man – and the role is taken over by Dennis Quaid – the pooch comes back into his life to remind him of what he might otherwise forget.

But Bailey never actually dies. Rather, he keeps being reincarnated, and he remembers each life he lives, so that he can learn lessons from each life that might help him in the next one (shades of Bill Murray in Groundhog Day).

And he intends to keep being reborn, if he can possibly help it, until he figures out just what it is that the film's title is hinting at.

This is the third film by veteran Swedish director Lasse Hallstrom with the word "dog" in the title (preceded by My Life as a Dog and Hachiko: A Dog's Story), but dogs aren't really a specialty of his given the other films on his eclectic resume (Once Around, What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Something to Talk About, The Cider House Rules, Chocolat, The Shipping News, An Unfinished Life, Casanova, The Hoax, Dear John, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, Safe Haven, The Hypnotist, The Hundred-Foot Journey).

The script by a committee of five, based on the best-selling novel by W. Bruce Cameron and adopting the dog's point of view, sees dogs as, among other things, ambassadors to combat human loneliness with unconditional love and completely reliable companionship.

But the film's essential draw and main attraction is, no matter how you slice it, the showcasing of photogenic canines and the inevitable "Aww" reflex at the cute four-legged antics.

Call it tear-jerking charm.

Not, as they say, that there's anything wrong with that.

So, dog lovers, grab some Kleenex and head this way. Cynics, meanwhile, should beware.

As for us, we'll housetrain 2-1/2 stars out of 4 for a family-friendly dramedy. A Dog's Purpose aims to melt your heart. And doggone it if it doesn't.

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