Who Gets the Dog?

I am always impressed when a terrible idea get's greenlit, funded, and filmed. This movie was one of those unfortunate surprises and I just can't understand who pitched this seriously, but more so, who took the pitch seriously. A couple breaking up is not really funny to begin with, and where this tried to be funny it just was not. The movie is forgettable and I would not watch it again. It's a darn shame because I am a big fan of a lot of the actors and I am crossing my fingers that I will see them in better projects soon because they deserve that.

This movie is about interpersonal relationships between people, like most "dog" movies

there is not that much footage of the dog, and it's not that funny of a movie, lots of serious drama stuff with some humor. Even the humor parts are interwoven into the drama scenes

Its tough to find dog movies which focus on dogs, this movie is not one of those

I like Alicia Silverstone, and she's adorable in this movie. Yet, it still was not very enjoyable for me. The acting was below average which made it very difficult for me to get into it. Basically, the entire movie is centered around a couples breakup and their debate over "who gets the dog?" Not the title didn't already tell you that, but really, that's it! The dog gets depressed because he is recognizing the change that is occurring in his life. Although I like the presence of mean green juice (promoting a healthy diet) I just can't give this movie a high rating. It's cringe worthy. You know when the acting is really THAT bad your body cringes? Well I cringed multiple times. It would've been A LOT better as a comedy. A real comedy! One that makes you pee yourself you laugh so hard comedy. I'm not at all pleased. The ending is even worse than the movie. More and more movies are starting to end that way. A few of you might enjoy it, but if you're highly critical of the films you watch, prepare to give an extremely detailed review on how awful this film was. That is, if you watch the entire thing.

Porsche Vonne

I have seen Alicia Silverstone in several movies, but what I remember most about her is that for me, she did not live up to Rachel Blanchard's standard in "Clueless". I wait to see movies on TV, and I had seen numerous episodes of the TV series by the time I saw Silverstone. This is not to say she wasn't good in that movie, but just that I didn't like her as much. That's the case here. I'm sure the performance was very good. Although in one tearful scene, I couldn't honestly say Silverstone was doing that good a job. I don't know why. I'm not supposed to like Olive, though. I'm a guy and I'm supposed to be on Clay's side. I think that affected my point of view.

Clay is a likable enough character. A bumbling idiot, but that's the appeal of the movie. The move he messes up, the more we're supposed to like it. At the same time, Ryan Kwanten, who I know nothing about, isn't that special.

I don't know anything about Randall Bantikoff. Clay's rival for Olive is likable enough but, for someone with my point of view, we're not supposed to like him. And sometimes he doesn't prove to be likable. But mostly he is good, I suppose. He is somewhat intimidating as he teaches people to handle their dogs.

If anyone stands out, it is Matty Ryan as Clay's best friend who is also a hockey coach. This movie needs a voice of reason and he is it. And Rhett has some nice scenes with his troubled 9-year-old nephew Koji. Devin Bethea doesn't get to do much, though he has a couple of good lines. Frankly, I was hoping Koji would need to be adopted and Clay and Olive would get back together and raise him. There are signs the secondary plot will move in that direction, and that's all I will say about that. The scenes with Koji do add a lot but didn't reach their full potential.

If it's all about the dog, the dog isn't that special but does provide us some comedy. I'm not a dog person and don't even like dogs.

As to whether this is a comedy, it is funny at times but there is enough sadness and enough conflict that comedy-drama might have been appropriate. I'm not saying this had to be a comedy to be good. It just didn't reach its full potential as a comedy, and it needed the drama too.

I didn't like the music all that much. There was nice acoustic guitar at the beginning with a song that eventually had drums that were too loud for my taste. At the festival there was a band that was somewhere between country and rock. And at the hockey games there was heavy metal which I definitely didn't care for. The music with the closing credits was some kind of alternative rock which wasn't my taste either.

Is it family-friendly? I see no reason why a TV-14 was necessary when I saw it. In fact, there was also an L. Why? All the bad language was removed. The only words I could think of in situations where the sound went out were words broadcast TV not only allows but puts in G-rated shows. Someone really went overboard. The scariest scene was one with dog expert Glenn who has brought a dog who was trained to fight and kill. Glenn has control. But anyone seeing that, including the dog owners, will certainly worry.

Yes, it's a formula. I like the formula. But I've seen better.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find a whole lot of humor in this romantic comedy, starring Alicia Silverstone and Ryan Kwanten. Having marital problems, they're in the process of separating, yet they equally love their dog Wesley and can't seem to reach any compromise as to where Wesley should end up. Thus, they begin a custodial court battle for their dog, which, in my opinion, just seems to drag on and even get quite tedious.

Although the leads' passions for Wesley seem genuine, this weak scripted movie never seemed to gel into a funny or enjoyable film, and by the time the predictable ending occurred I really wasn't that interested anymore.