Year of the Dog
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Josh Pais, Laura Dern, Molly Shannon, Regina King, Thomas McCarthyBrand: REILLY,JOHN C.
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; Spanish (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 96 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-08-28
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Paramount
Movie Reviews of Year of the Dog
Movie Review: Molly Shannon is FANTASTIC. A beautifully crafted film!
Summary: 5 Stars
Molly Shannon is a revelation in this film. Her character could SO easily have become a caricature...and it wouldn't have surprised me to see a veteran of Saturday Night Live take the easy way out. But Writer/Director Mike White clearly knew something I didn't...hidden behind Mary Catherine Gallagher was a sensitive actor looking for the perfect part. Here it is.
Shannon plays a 40-something worker in a smallish corporate office, where she serves as the Administrative Assistant to a middle-manager type. She is quiet, competent and other than a somewhat unlikely friendship with the loud, brash Regina King...friendless. She has a well-to-do brother who is married to Laura Dern, a hyper-sensitive parent...one of those parents who doesn't even want her daughter to know what death is. Shannon feels that her life has enough love, however, because she dotes on her delightfully cute Beagle Pencil. Pencil is her companion, and they share a small but lovely home.
One night, Pencil wanders out of the yard, gets into something she shouldn't, and dies from poisoning. Shannon is devastated by grief, of course, and we see how one person after another doesn't really seem to understand that losing Pencil wasn't the same as losing just a pet...she's lost the love of her life and now feels a void.
Her next door neighbor (John C. Reilly) seems to have some glimmering that Shannon is going through something profound, and offers to take her out for dinner. The "date" doesn't go to well, and the tentative friends slowly become adversaries. Shannon also meets animal activist Peter Sarsgaard, who gets her another dog. The two oddballs form a nice friendship, but Shannon wants something more...something Sarsgaard is unwilling to give.
Essentially, the movie is a carefully observed study of one woman's descent into madness. It is very specific, very credible and very, very heartbreaking. We root for Shannon all the way through, even as she takes increasingly insane actions. At first, she is consumed with grief, and we can recognize that. Then she begins to do some doubtful things, and we understand because we know she was sort of a lost, lonely soul to start with. But she never seems to get her feet under her again...never regains the stability that Pencil seemed to offer her.
How many of us have seen that story on the news about the crazy lady who is discovered with 30 filthy cats living in her house? How could that happen, we wonder. Well, this movie gives us one possible scenario.
I don't quite know how Mike White does it...but his guy is great at writing films (CHUCK & BUCK, THE GOOD GIRL) showing people who ought to know better slipping more and more deeply into self-damaging behavior. YEAR OF THE DOG is his most consistent, mature and touching work in this ilk yet. I've seen it described as a tragicomedy. There is some comedy...but the final feeling is far more one of sadness. This is NOT a feel good movie. But it is a MUST SEE movie...for the great script and especially for the lovely, understated, brave and unforgettable performance of Molly Shannon. So far this year, her performance is the best I've seen by an actress. I know Oscar won't come calling for such an off-beat movie that was released so early in the year...but I sure wish it would!
Summary of Year of the Dog
Molly Shannon plays Peggy, a happy-go-lucky secretary who is a great friend, employee, and sister living alone with her beloved dog Pencil. But when Pencil unexpectedly dies, Peggy must find meaning in her life. John C. Reilly, Peter Sarsgaard, Regina King and Laura Dern turn in great comic performances as the significant people in Peggy?s life who give her ill-fitting advice.Similar DVD Movies
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