There is no doubt that independent filmmaker Todd Solondz is a captivating filmmaker. He tells stories that curate dark characters and sometimes the audience may empathise or grow some form of fondness for them. His choice of actors are always intriguing as they often evolve to brilliance in performing, I.E. The late Philip Seymour Hoffman in 1998’s ‘Happiness.’ This film is what catapulted Solondz to the top of the indie scene due to its extremely dark comedic humour and bad taste. Once again, Solondz emerges with his seventh feature and the question is does Wiener-Dog hold up to the high standard of his previous films?
The film lacks originality as it parallels 1998’s ‘The Red Violin,’ in where a violin spans four centuries and five countries, telling the story of a mysterious red-coloured violin and its many owners. ‘Wiener-Dog’ embarks on the same structure in where a dachshund dog breed aka Wiener-Dog passes from oddball owner to oddball owner, (four in total) whose radically dysfunctional lives are all impacted by the pooch. The audience may decide which is their favourite dysfunctional character as they all have interesting background stories to tell, but the slow pace loses the attention span and the bad taste humour is not offensive but the audience may say, we get the point and enough is enough.
The opening character, 9 year old Remy played by newcomer Keaton Nigel Cooke, has certain innocence as he learns about the facts of life when his father gives him the new puppy after Remy has recovered from cancer. His father played by Tracy Letts and his mother Julie Delpy do not see eye to eye on the matter of extra responsibility with dog chores. The fact that this puppy is an inconvenience to house break is intriguing, but the disgusting climax of why the parents give up on Wiener Dog is where a line is drawn from bad taste or more rather sheer disgust. Nonetheless in the process, Remy will learn about being spayed, emotional attachment and the finality of death. They are simply life lessons that every child must learn as they are parallel to humanistic aspects.
From here on, the audience comprehend the format, that the dog will travel to the next protagonist, in this case Greta Gerwig. It is impressive how Solondz has captured the queen of indie acting but sadly underuses her or more rather doesn’t give her a chance to lustre like she did in ‘Frances Ha.’ Her character; a compassionate vet tech named Dawn Wiener, takes Wiener-Dog thus transcending into her story. Dawn reunites with someone from her past and sets off on a road trip. After leaving Dawn, Wiener-Dog encounters a floundering film professor, played by the brilliant Danny De Vito. This film could garner De Vito with more respect as he handles independent filmmaking dutifully and professionally. The climax of his story is effective and one can argue that he was the most favourable character of the four. Finally Wiener-Dog ends with the embittered elderly woman and her needy granddaughter—all longing for something more. Ellen Burstyn’s groaning Grandmother is stereotypical that she sadly isn’t given an opportunity to show the acting chops of what she once had in her Oscar winning role of ‘Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore’ as well as ‘Requiem for a Dream.’
What appears to be problematic with the film is the dog doesn’t do anything for the audience to become emotionally attached to. For instance, one’s natural response is to fall in love with Lassie because of the love she has for others and how she fights with obstacles in her way. The fact that Wiener-Dog is just there in the background of other peoples tragic lives doesn’t certify it to be a dog movie, but sadly leaves the audience unaware of the point or moral. In terms of the dark humour ending, it’s a good piece of advice to not get emotionally attached to the dog, but then with the dark ending the audience sadly become disappointed and ask, what was the purpose or the implication of Solondz motives? If there are any, it’s rather petty. Overall, it’s a dog movie for non-dog lovers. Lassie still rules!
No comments:
Post a Comment