What is it about dogs that bring us so much joy? They’re slobbery and noisy and require a lot of poopy-scoops, but we love them. In this ‘Love, Actually of canines’, the story weaves a series of vignettes.
Elizabeth (Nina Dobrev) hosts a morning TV show. She’s adopted ‘Sam’ her mutt who has a self-loathing problems and for $300 an hour sees a Therapist (Tig Notaro) reminiscent of Jane Lynch’s character in Best in Show. Enter, Jimmy(Tone Bell) on her morning show and the heat becomes‘Who Let the Dogs Out?’
Tara (Vanessa Hudgens) is a barista who’s found a Chihuahua named ‘Gertrude Stein.’ Gertrude requires a helmet – promoting a lot of ‘ohhhh, so cute’ factor – to protect her tiny noggin.
Greg (Thomas Lennon) is the henpecked-gets-it-all-wrong husband to a pregnant-with-twins (Jessica St Clare) whose starving-artist, brother Dax (Adam Pally) is forced to watch their dog ‘Charlie’ when she goes into labor.
Grace (Eva Longoria) has just adopted a little girl, Amelia (Elizabeth Phoenix Caro) who seems uninterested in all the ponies and teddy bears in her perfectly pink decorated bedroom. Instead, she relates to a missing dog in need of a good home.
But perhaps the most sentimental of the caravan of plots, is that of a Widower (Ron Cephas Jones) who feels obligated to care for his overweight pug ‘Mabel’, the way his now-deceased wife once did. Cephas Jones is most recognizable as William Hill from the hit TV show This is Us, which is made all the more surreal when the Widower’s doorbell rings and the pizza delivery boy turns out to be one of the kids in the phenomenon Stranger Things. Tyler (Finn Wolfhard) is the delivery boy.
Unlike the dog-stealing-master-of-canine-films A Dog’s Purpose, this one has some rough patches. Is this movie about animals or humans? Or both. The story-weaving becomes a nuisance, utilizing big button-eyed children and bigger-button-eyed dogs to substitute for plot. At times it’s more hell-bent on being a series of cute advertisements than any semblance of a story. Just who is this movie for? Adults? Sure.Family? Maybe. Kids? Not too young as it has some sexual storyline that might be inappropriate.
Let’s just say if A Dog’s Purpose is champagne delicately sipped through a flute, Dog Days is champagne sipped through a straw.
That being said, initially it’s like an unsettled dog, eventually it settles into sentimental territory and ends up feeling very much like a big red bow tying up some doggie biscuits.