Herald rating: * * *
KEY POINTS:
Everyone knows dog people are a bit crazy, and this confirms it, in the nicest possible way. Pet-mad Peggy allows her pooch to sleep on her bed, drives with him on her lap, and moisturises his paws. When the dog dies, so does her sense of self, sending
her on a downward spiral into animal rights activism so obsessive it lands her in doggie do.
The film works on many levels, celebrating the positive effects animals can have on our lives and poking fun at those who have pets as a substitute for people. And it's a quietly paced story that, like writer/director Mike White's previous film, The Good Girl, turns the oppressive into a comic art form.
Former Saturday Night Live star Molly Shannon (Peggy) is no Nicole Kidman. She spends much of the film in matronly garb, while dealing with her dull secretarial job, her patronising family and her optimistic yet clueless best friend (played by a hilarious Regina King).
Peggy has accepted her fate as an unmarried 40-something and almost looks surprised when it's suggested she find a mate. Not being one to pursue relationships, they turn out a bit odd.
There's the asexual man from the vets (Peter Sarsgaard) with whom she forges a shy companionship, and her hunting-mad neighbour, (John C. Reilly), a character whose service to the plot starts well but fizzles into a drawn-out, rambling climax. Although the awkwardness between characters makes it funny, the film tries too hard to break with convention, sending the tone lurching from cheery-bland comedy (a la Napoleon Dynamite) to something more closely associated with rock stars on drugs.
But holding it together is a pitch-perfect performance from Shannon. You can feel her inwardly rolling eyes every time her nauseatingly neurotic step-sister (Dern) opens her mouth; and sense her despondency when she smiles through gritted teeth.
Expertly timed editing adds to the humour of many a banal conversation in a film that should have been called Year of the Underdog.
Cast: Molly Shannon, Laura Dern, Peter Sarsgaard, John C. Reilly, Regina King
Director: Mike White
Running time: 97 mins
Screening: Academy
Verdict: Darkly comic tale that turns the weirdo into the hero