Have Dog, Will Road Trip

Woof, moo, meow…

It’s always interesting to discover those quiet movies that might have played in theaters and pulled in fairly good returns but then faded into the background waiting to resurface again. One such movie seems to be 2022’s Dog, starring Channing Tatum as a former Army Ranger who bonds with his former canine teammate, Lulu, on what turns out to be a very illuminating road trip. The film’s rather simple, maybe even slightly generic, title belies the personal nature of the the story, which has more to it than meets the eye. It just trips over itself a bit along the way.

Jackson Briggs (Channing Tatum) is a combat veteran who gets mustered out of the Army after a brain injury and who now works at a sandwich counter in a convenience stor and lives in a cabin in the woods. He’s desperate to work in diplomatic security, but everyone seems to be dragging their feet.

Then Jackson finds out one of his old squad-mates, Riley Rodriguez, ran his car into a tree and passed away, and in the middle of his shock and grief he learns that he’s supposed to drive the squad’s dog, a Belgian Malinois named Lulu down to the funeral in Arizona. If he can do this, he’s got a shot at the job he’s been angling for.

Lulu is a wee bit high-maintenance. Her ears are extremely ticklish and she’s known for her aggressive behavior. It doesn’t take long for her to turn her kennel into rubble, she tears the seats of Jackson’s Suburban to little bits, she bites and snaps at every little thing. It doesn’t take long for Jackson to tire of Lulu’s antics and stuff some Benadryl in a hot dog.

While Jackson takes his assignment very seriously, he’s not above taking a few side jaunts. In Portland he almost gets into a menage a trois, only to be foiled by a dope who puts a rock through the back windshield of the Suburban and arouses Lulu’s ire. Granted, Jackson was kind of a dope himself for getting himself into that situation in the first place, but throwing a rock at a barking Belgian Malinois is all kinds of stupid.

While Lulu is aggressive, she’s also very well trained. While on the road, she jumps out of the Suburban and runs straight to a marijuana farm out in the wilderness because she’s been trained to track down illegal growers. Long story short, Jackson makes friends with Gus (Kevin Nash) and Tamara (Jane Adams), a friendly marijuana farmer and his wife, who not only help fit Lulu’s hurt foot, but give a psychic reading. In summary, Lulu wants to sleep on a luxurious bed and eat Indian food.

Jackson follows instructions, but it doesn’t end well. For one thing, Lulu isn’t interested in the plate of samosas Jackson buys at the hotel. For another, she lunges at a Muslim doctor in the hotel lobby in an unfortunate moment. And oh yeah, there’s a funeral to get to.

There’s some drooling in this movie. From both Lulu and Jackson. It’s not exactly nice but at least it’s not on the level of Bruce Willis in 12 Monkeys. There are also plenty of quiet scenes in which we can see the relationship between Jackson and Lulu changing. There are also scenes of very little dialogue where Tatum is just sitting and being with Lulu and we get to take in a lot of gorgeous scenery, most of it of the Pacific Coast Highway.

And it’s not just a dog movie, either; as it shows Jackson dealing with the after-effects of combat, both physical and mental, and how his outlook changes when he starts connecting with other vets from his squad. We also see vets who are worse off than Jackson, such as the homeless vet Jackson sees living under a pier at the beach. Everyone has some obstacle to overcome, but not everyone has the same kind of help.

Dog is often billed as a buddy comedy, but it’s more of a light drama, and it’s best as long as it stays away from broad Turner and Hooch-type schtick. It doesn’t need it; the film has a very sensitive plot that just needs occasional bursts of gentle humor to keep it balanced. I found it gets better with repeated viewings, and liked it much better the second time I saw it. While it is a bit predictable, it’s also satisfying.

The movie was a return to leading roles for Channing Tatum, who both directed and starred in the film, and, amazingly enough, based it on his own experiences with his dog, a pit bull-Catahoula mix who was also named Lulu. In 2018 Lulu was diagnosed with cancer, so Tatum went on a road trip with her as a way to say goodbye. Lulu passed away in December of that same year.

Tatum, who called Dog “very cathartic,” said in an interview:

Developing it [Dog] and really talking about what dogs mean and what dogs mean to specifically me, or to soldiers, or to anyone really, and primarily we landed on this word ‘surrender’. And that was to me really what I had to learn. When I went on my last road trip with my puppy, [I experienced] that feeling of, ‘There’s nothing I can do. There’s nothing left to do.’ You just have to accept it and be thankful for the time that you did get and know that they’re not supposed to be here forever. I’m supposed to go on and she has to go someplace else.

Dog is a slow-burn that will probably hit its target differently depending on who sees it, but it definitely hits it, and one doesn’t have to be a dog owner or a vet to get it. That’s pretty cool.

For more of the Friends Fur Life Blogathon, please visit The Midnite Drive-In and Hamlette’s Soliloquy. Thanks for hosting, Quiggy and Rachel–this was fun! Thanks for reading, all, and I hope to see you tomorrow for another review…

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Dog is available on DVD and Blu-ray from Amazon, and is free to stream on Prime.

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