Year of the Dog (DVD)

Year of the Dog

(this first appeared on www.realmoviereview.com)Molly Shannon, of Saturday Night Live fame, is Peggy, a lonely, but content, office worker whose life is cracked by the sudden death of her little dog (he is a very cute dog). These leads to romantic possibilities with a couple of men including her next door neighbour, Al (Reilly) and Newt (Sarsgaard). As these peter out, however, she slowly becomes more and more absorbed with animal rights and saving pound-incarcerated pooches. This leads her to make some very controversial decisions that threaten her stable, little life.

Now, I love animals - all kinds of animals, and, though I often do not agree with the views and actions of organizations like PETA, I am sympathetic to their feelings. Year of The Dog started out as an unusual, little animal lovers romantic comedy like Must Love Dogs crossed with Amelie, but as Peggy turned more and more extreme in her views and actions, I began to resent the opinionated tenor of what I had expected to be light entertainment. PETA supporters, here is a movie just for you.