A Dog’s Journey review: The film makes you emotional, but the screenplay is a let down

If you are someone who loves dogs, you don’t even want to read this. Go watch the film with a box of tissues. But, if you are not, you will find many loopholes. A Dog’s Journey is a film that is plain, but the makers have cracked the code to make you cry, and you will be ready to ignore everything that the film lacks in.

What it’s about: Based on reincarnation, but that of a dog, A Dog’s Journey is a sequel to the super-hit film A Dog’s Purpose. Based on a book by W Bruce Cameron, the film takes forward the story from its predecessor. Ethan is now a grandfather and Bailey is a huge grown-up dog. The family now includes Ethan, Hannah, his granddaughter CJ, and a widowed daughter Gloria, who loses her husband when she is eight months pregnant. Followed by a conflict, Gloria, along with CJ leaves the house, and turns out to be a bad mother. Bailey is at death’s door, and Ethan tells him to be reborn near CJ and to protect her. Keeping the promise, Bailey is born as four different dogs, and meets CJ in different stages of her life.

Also, this movie shows dogs detecting cancer. Is that for real?

Yay: Firstly, the observation, the minute details about dogs, and the punchlines and character arcs for dogs is nice. It seems to be a good decision to stick to the same storytelling way as its prequel. The film uses the emotional targets for a dog-lover correctly, and pinches them at the right places.

Josh Gad doing the voice-over for the dogs with his deep voice make them sound straight out of Deadpool’s world.

Acting performances by the entire cast including Dennis Quaid, Kathryn Prescott, Marg Helgenberger, Henry Lau and Betty Gilpin are good. They play their parts as they are expected to.

Nay: Well, this is not an animated film, they are real dogs. Which means the dogs won’t be expressing themselves the same way as the enthusiastic Josh Gad is voicing them. This tends to break the connect, but you make peace with it. The conflicts are made and resolved in fast-flying minutes and the screenplay moves on to the next issue.

The very fact that the film doesn’t let you stay with an arc for a longer time is the reason you are not absorbed completely. Every scene seems to be a montage and nothing sums up to be a complete one. So you sob in a few parts, not through the film.

CineBlitz Verdict: The idea that a dog will always be by your side, good, bad, no matter what, is clear and understood, but the screenplay falters. Go ahead to the theatres if you are a dog-lover, may be you will feel thankful to have one. If not a dog-lover, you can start by watching A Dog’s Purpose, the prequel, and start loving dogs. The sequel can be skipped.

Rating: 2 stars