Films > Film Reviews

Wiener-Dog

22/08/16

This had some promising moments and a few nice laughs, but by the end of it all everything was limping along to such a dreary and try-hard artsy view of the world that it turned into rather a soulless, absurd product.

Coming home with a pet dog is Danny (Tracy Letts) who hopes it will help their son’s progress. After a granola-induced accident, Wiener-Dog is taken to the vets where Dawn (Greta Gerwig) smuggles him away. She goes on a trip with Brandon (Kieran Culkin) and soon the pooch is into Story #3 with film school teacher Dave (Danny DeVito) before finding himself with the elderly Nana (Ellen Burstyn) who gets a visit from her granddaughter.

Danny DeVito plays the grumbling professor well, shuffling through his portion. Greta Gerwig gladly brings an element of sunshine into the world of the movie but is still quite muted on a random trip she takes with the similarly shuffling and muted Kieran Culkin.

Starting with the positives, of which there are few,  Story #1 with the family trio does have some funny points, and I guess the odd intermissions starring the pup strolling in front of backdrops was quite strangely funny. Story #3,commenting on hope, a New York based film school, students, screenwriting and the industry are well scripted but then it’s over with a dog wearing a yellow dress and something else…which I won’t spoil for you.

What director Todd Solondz does frequently is to take something either brimming with humour or life importance and drag it out to within an inch of its life so it’s neither funny or affirming anymore. Either that or he twists it so much with a weird black sense of comedy that you question what this movie is even trying to do or say.

Another reason why film didn’t sit well with me is because there was no connection. Aside from the first two stories, the characters didn’t feel in any strong way linked; we just skipped from one short movie tale to another thanks to the dog and that’s that. After watching the whole feature, it felt like there’s been absolutely zero point to anything that happened. It’s eccentric yet empty and the conclusion of the dog’s journey is cause of great and distasteful alarm.

I can safely say this is a film I’ll hopefully forget and never recommend, but for fans of Todd Solondz’s work then this may be a movie you’ll enjoy, if that’s the word to use…which it isn’t.

4.5/10