Bark!

Don't be mislead by the trailer. Sure, the film is chock full of really funny bits, but they serve to offer comic relief to a truly poignant story of a woman with a terrible mental disorder, her husband who is at the end of his tether, a statement on the treatment of mental disorders by "let's just make her a vegetable", a vet who doesn't really know where her heart is going and finds herself falling in love with the husband who comes to her for advice, a resident shrink who would rather be practicing his harp than medicine and gets himself fired for practicing psychiatry in a broom closet and on house-calls for cash, and a buddy who boasts of being fired from a job about every six weeks because he feels oppressed by "the man." Good character development. The plot has good resolution. A mix of angst, laughter, and warm fuzzies. Memorable line: The buddy tells the resident, "Stick with the harp. You can't get fired from playing the harp." Good film.

Peter's (Lee Tergeson) young wife Lucy (Heather Morgan) begins to act like a dog. 'Bark' is a naturalistic account, told with some flashbacks but mostly in chronological order, of how Peter comes to understand how Lucy has gradually slipped off the edge of sanity. What makes 'Bark' a comedy is Peter's success at creating a home and a family of friends for Lucy.

Although mentally ill people have been treated before with levity (think of Dustin Hoffman in 'Rain Man') I can recall no other film that has approached the subject with such tenderness. Scenes of Peter bathing Lucy and of their apartment manager yelling through the ceiling to get her to stop barking and go back to sleep are original and memorable. Lisa Kudrow is hysterical as a neurotic veterinarian named Darla Portnoy, and Vincent D'Onofrio is convincing as the sad-sack psychiatric resident Malcolm who would rather play the harp.

If you choose the movie Bark based on the trailer or the video/DVD box cover, you are probably going to be disappointed. The movie is only a comedy in the most traditional sense of the word: for instance, it concludes with a beautiful celebration where all the characters are gathered together. It is not a comedy of crass jokes or goofy gags. And is it a romance movie? Again, hardly in the way the promoters advertise it to be. Bark is, however, a loving look at the tragi-comedy of the human condition. Obviously, I liked this movie very much. It moved along well yet had many "timeless" moments. It did not make a big deal of itself. It depicted its characters and their troubles with warmth and kindness, yet was not sappy. I am thankful to those who created this movie, for their intelligence and tenderness toward the whole situation of mental illness. Anyone who has known someone who has "lost it" -- and really that must be all of us by now -- will appreciate this movie for its story. As for the tone, I would say that it has more in common with something like Woody Allen's Crimes and Misdemeanors -- another "romantic comedy" which was much more than that phrase generally seems to mean nowadays.

To be honest, I turned on this movie because I thought it would be a fun comedy to have on in the background. It's not. It's a sweet, poignant drama about a guy who's just trying to do what's best for his wife. Lee Tergesen (HBO's "Oz") is fantastic as Peter, the confused, loving husband of a woman who's suddenly started acting like a dog. The pain and love he's feeling shines through clearly, yet he's by no means perfect. He's just a guy who's had a unusual problem dumped on him, and the problem of trying to get people to take him seriously is one of his biggest problems. The best scenes are the ones in which he simply watches his wife; everything he's feeling, from the love to the frustration, comes pouring through. Heather Morgan is fascinating to watch as Lucy, his wife. Her physical acting is very good, very much in sync with how dogs often act. The supporting cast is great, too; nearly all of the characters have a purpose, rather than being scenery. Hank Azaria is wonderful as Peter's ne'er-do-well friend, Lisa Kudrow's cute as his neurotic, sexy vet, and Vincent D'Onofrio's coolly creepy as a psychiatric resident with a bit of an ethics problem and a desire to do something else. Together, all these characters form an odd collection, but it works. The key to this movie is to remember that--no matter what the critics say--it's not a comedy. It's a drama, though admittedly a quirky one, and a very good one at that.

there is this awesome movie that is circling 'Starz and Encore' right now called Bark! about this lady who has a mental breakdown and believes that she is a dog. Has a great supporting cast including D'noffrio, Hank Azaria, Lisa Kudrow, as well as leading man Lee Tergesen {better known for his role as 'beacher' on 'OZ'} It has received shitty ratings, and well it is a very low budget piece of crap, but I loved it. It was a fun idea to play with, the chick who played the nut was believable. None of the characters were cardboard 2 dimensional things just there to waste time. All these odd ball people come together, for seemingly no reason, and the weirdest reasons of all, and it some how fits. Life is like that, but this had great emotional depth by Tergesen, and I'd never seen Kudrow in a sexier role. I have nothing but good things to say about all the actors in the flick, that's my 2 cents. GO SEE IT AND MAKE UP YOUR OWN MIND IF YOU LIKE IT! DON'T LISTEN TO ME!