Film Review: DOG (2022): Channing Tatum Stars In & Co-Directs a Heartwarming Tale of Companionship

Dog Review

Dog (2022) Film Review, a movie directed by Reid Carolin and Channing Tatum and starring Channing Tatum, Q’orianka Kilcher, Aqueela Zoll, Kevin Nash, Jane Adams, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Cayden Boyd, Darren Kellan, Neralda Bega, Nicole LaLiberte, Ronnie Gene Blevins, Skyler Joy, Amanda Booth, Ryder McLaughlin, JoAnne McGrath, Patricia Isaac, Eric Urbiztondo and Trent Buxton.

Channing Tatum is unpredictable. I never would have guessed he would have made a heartwarming drama about a man who forms a friendship with a dog while on a road trip but Tatum not only starred in this movie, he co-directed it. It’s called Dog and it’s being advertised as a comedy. While there are comic elements in it, Dog is really a deeply affecting drama at its core and is considerably well made. Tatum stars as Jackson Briggs, a father of a young child/one-time Army Ranger who is now making sandwiches at a deli. He is assigned to transport an occasionally vicious Belgian Malinois Shepherd dog with PTSD named Lulu to a head soldier’s funeral. Consider it something in the vein of 1991’s road picture, Dutch, but with a dog instead of a kid and a little more dramatic instead of comic. Of course, you could also directly compare Dog to actual canine movies from the late 1980’s like K-9 and Turner & Hooch as well. Just for the record, Reid Carolin was the other director of the new film who worked with Tatum to helm this genuinely endearing new picture.

There are some problems with Dog in the early stages of the picture. One such problem is that younger kids will want to see this film. While it’s, at times, a little too slowly paced for them, it would still have been a nice movie for older kids to watch. However, both younger and older kids will be confused by a certain plot element where Tatum’s character, Briggs, gets involved with a couple of women who practice Yoga and want to bring out Briggs’s sexuality. Thankfully, the dog escapes from Briggs’s truck at this moment in the movie and thus puts a dent in the plans of these characters to get intimate but by including this scene, it sort of narrows the audience down to teenagers and adults only which could hurt the movie’s reach because deep underneath, it’s really a touching movie about overcoming obstacles through perseverance. It should have been more family friendly all the way through.

Another problem in the early stages is the slow development of the friendship between the dog and Briggs. The dog is initially just a pain in the neck as she chews the seat in Briggs’s SUV and seems like an inconvenience for Briggs who is only transporting Lulu to try to re-establish himself in the army. Of course, the dog doesn’t care much for Briggs either at first and runs away from him. Some of these early scenes feel cliched as they follow the formula that demands that the main characters won’t get along at first and the movie feels recycled in the beginning. Briggs, however, has seizures due to an injury that make his life very difficult and this aspect of the movie adds dramatic tension in certain moments of the film and helps the movie stand out a bit from basic road pictures.

Also interesting in the movie are the performances of Kevin Nash and Jane Adams who play a husband and wife in the film. Nash’s character Gus ties Briggs up and takes the dog into his home but ultimately comes to an understanding with Briggs that allows him to continue on his journey with Lulu. Adams as Gus’ psychic wife, Tamara, shines in her brief scenes in the movie and Nash is also intriguing in his role. This segment of the movie was unpredictable and will help maintain the audience’s attention.

Three dogs actually portrayed the role of Lulu and you can sort of tell if you pay close attention. The dog reacts differently at certain given intervals of the picture and it’s easy to spot differences in the animal if you look closely but, if you don’t examine the dogs too carefully, you will be moved by the way the dog develops as a character in the film. There is a real transformation that Lulu goes through in the movie as she grows attached to Briggs and forms a true bond with him.

I liked the military aspect of the movie as well. John Cena is pictured as the now deceased veteran and he sort of resembles Tatum in a way. Tatum, as Briggs, demonstrates his character’s integrity and determination to make good on his promise of delivering Lulu to the promised destination on time out of respect for those involved. That means even if Briggs has to carry Lulu there on his shoulders, he is aiming to get the dog where she needs to be.

Despite the familiar early stages of the picture and a silly scene in the midsection where Briggs pretends to be blind to get a room in a hotel, the bond between Briggs and Lulu is touching and can move the viewer especially in the later scenes of the movie.

Dog is ultimately a movie worth seeing. Tatum has grown considerably as a dramatic actor and this was the last movie I expected to learn of that growth. As a result of Tatum’s moving performance, the picture works much better than I thought it would and it’s a lot less of a comedy than I thought it would be. It’s a heartfelt journey through the eyes of a man who has come to a crossroads in his life and who finds comfort in the company of an animal and, as a result, learns things about himself that he never knew. I didn’t go into Dog expecting to be genuinely moved but I was and on that basis alone, it’s a good film.

Rating: 7/10

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