Year of the Dog
Rating: 3 out of 4 stars
Cameron Slick
Peggy (Molly Shannon) is content with her life with her dog, Pencil. One night Pencil refuses to return to the house. In the morning, she finds him ill in a neighbor's yard. The neighbor Al (John C. Reilly) feels sorry for her, and takes her out to dinner. She's charmed, until he starts talking about hunting and his delight in killing animals.
Her boss Robin (Josh Pais) is meek in appearance, complaining about his meager bonuses and being put on the "green team", with old guys. He is cantankerous. She has a co-worker, Layla (Regina King), who is loud, exuberant, and occasionally clueless.
She meets Newt (Peter Saarsgard), who loves dogs and convinces her to adopt a bigger, once-abandoned dog Valentine. She's attracted to him and starts to change her habits. She goes vegan, and makes tasteless brownies for her co-workers.
Her transformation from a docile secretary into an panicky animal-lover is sad, in that she takes things too far, brings herself down so low, for something that she barely seemed to believe in the first place.
Year of the Dog is a novel character study that successfully blends some poignancy with some humor.
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