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“A Dog’s Purpose” is a Furby. It’s a mechanically engineered simulation of sweetness with big eyes meant to sucker you. It’s fake and manipulative.
A dog named Bailey (voiced by Josh Gad) is adopted by Ethan (played as a child by Ethan Montgomery, as a teen by K. J. Apa and as an adult by Dennis Quaid) After Bailey passes away, he is suddenly reborn in a new dog body, still wondering what a dog's purpose is.
This is a grandma movie. A picture that drenches itself in artificial sentimentality to ensure no one will be upset, enlightened or moved except in shallow ways. It doesn’t challenge you or have much to say. I get it. The world is a scary place right now. You want some comfort food but come on. You can do better than this!
"A Dog's Purpose" is a series of unremarkable stories about dogs strung together with the comforting thought that when your baby dies, he/she doesn’t really die. There’s the lonely guy on the farm that let love slip away, the lonely police officer (John Ortiz) working on the canine unit, the lonely woman (Kirby Howell-Baptiste) who doesn’t think she needs anyone else (but she does) Cue the sappy music and the one-dimensional cardboard cut-out characters. Still not sold? Here’s an avalanche of shots of dogs chasing their tails, whimpering adorably, all set to Josh Gad humorously commenting on how canines don't understand this crazy human world! Have you got your ticket yet?!
I realize I’m not really supposed to think too much about the premise, but I couldn’t help myself. If dogs reincarnate, do other animals too? How many dog personalities are floating around? Wouldn’t Bailey be some prehistoric dog from when wolves were first domesticated 14,000 years ago? Do dogs chase cars in the hopes of getting run over and then reborn? Can we hear the thoughts of one of those dogs that go crazy and ends up biting some poor toddler’s face off? What was it thinking?
"A Dog's Purpose" is shamelessly afraid of taking chances, of actually writing a story about a dog and instead opts for that old trick of layering baby talk over footage of a cute little animal. I know there’s controversy going on with some people accusing the filmmakers of animal cruelty. The footage released by TMZ was taken out of context, carefully edited and strategically released. In the end credits, the American Humane assures the audience the dog was fine. If you’re going to avoid the film (you should), make sure you do so for the right reason. “A Dog’s Purpose” is uninspired, convoluted and manipulative. If the theater's floors are sticky, it's from all the artificial sweetener the studio pumped in to try and trick you. (Theatrical version on the big screen, February 8, 2017)
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Sometimes-that's exactly the kind of movie people want. It in no way diminishes ones intelligence, or sophistication. Perhaps a mindless sappy story about a dog is exactly what the Dr. ordered. And everything is manipulative these days... that's the power of media.