The Call of the Wild: Jack London's classic good-dog story gets a metaphysical and CGI assist
By Karen Gordon
Rating: B
Full disclosure: I am not, by nature, a committed dog person.
But, despite an incident where a client’s dog slobbered on a new designer jacket that not even a professional dry cleaner could get rid of (meaning I had to throw it out), I still love and respect our drooling friends.
Harrison Ford (left) and the furry star of the show, Buck, in The Call of the Wild.
And so, clearly, does Chris Sanders (How to Train Your Dragon), the director of The Call of the Wild.
The movie, based on Jack London’s classic novel (which has never gone out of print), is not just an homage to the canine species. It also suggests that all creatures are on some deeper journey, a spiritual trek to find their own truth. And it’s also a celebration of the natural beauty of the North, specifically the Yukon.
Harrison Ford is in the movie, but the real star is a big intelligent St. Bernard-mix named Buckley (who plays, coincidentally enough, the St. Bernard-mix Buck). That is, when he isn’t a CGI representation, played by a motion-capture actor.
Buck is snatched away from what appears to be a great life in California. His kidnappers take him to the Yukon where he is sold as a sled dog. Big money to be made there. It’s the 1890s and the Gold Rush era.
Buck’s new owners are Perrault and Françoise (played by Omar Sy and Toronto’s Cara Gee respectively), a husband and wife team who deliver mail across the frozen north. Buck now must learn to be part of a multi-breed dog team in conditions he’s never seen before.
He’s a naturally empathetic dog who has team spirit. And so, he’s troubled by the lead dog Spitz, a beautiful Husky with a mean temperament. The humans treat their dog team with love and respect, but Spitz is nasty and a bully. And he’s cruel. The other dogs are afraid of him. (This is all portrayed through physicality and expressive growls).
His treatment of the other dogs rankles Buck, who has no shortage of moral courage. He finally challenges the much tougher Husky, a move that changes the course of Buck’s life in meaningful ways.
But there are other forces compelling Buck. At times of turmoil or at turning points, he sees a vision: a beautiful black wolf with fiery eyes who silently locks eyes with him before vanishing. Yep, you read that right: Buck has a spirit animal.
Sadly, Buck’s life working as part of the mail delivery sled dog team ends. His life goes from happy to miserable, when he and the team are sold to Hal, played by a mustachioed Dan Stevens, a callow fellow in a red plaid suit who has come to make a fast fortune in the gold rush, and who has no love or respect for anything, let alone the dogs. Buck starts to find freedom again in the last third of the movie when he spends time with Harrison Ford’s troubled character John Thornton.
And once again, in that relationship, Buck proves himself to be an intuitive companion. Ford’s character has his own journey, a tragic loss that has brought him to live alone in an isolated cabin just outside of town. He and Buck forge a relationship built on a mutual respect. They are two alphas who have known both kindness and sorrow, and who are each looking for their reason to be in the world.
Call of the Wild is a bit of everything you might expect in a family adventure movie about a dog finding his bliss in the snow. There’s lots of adventure to be found in trying to crossing icy lakes, and learning team work, etc . And it’s pretty good. But still there are some problems.
There are points where the narrative skips ahead a bit, and suddenly characters are miles away from where they were in the previous scene without any real explanation, as if the producers were impatient to get us to the finish line. The fetching Dan Stevens’ Hal is not just a cruel and callow villain, but seems to fulfill the role of bad-guy-for-hire, when the plot needs him. Think a handsome Snidely Whiplash and you have the idea.
As well, Sy’s character, allegedly Quebecois, speaks with an accent that is distinctly Parisian and not Québecois. Nonetheless, Sy is such a wonderful presence that I forgave him.
There are, of course, many lovable dogs in the world. But not many can show emotion on demand, and so, as mentioned, the filmmakers here have resorted to CGI. Buck is a combination of a real dog, and (mostly) motion capture actor Terry Notary who specializes in recreating animal behaviour (his specialty is primates which he shows off to a disturbing and effective degree in The Square). Notary provides Buck’s emotional range at key moments.
As well: The anthropomorphizing of Buck could put some off. He’s portrayed as a cross between a Zen master, an addictions counsellor and a very good boy. The only thing he doesn’t do is pick up the cheque.
But in the grand scheme of things, it feels somewhat peevish to raise these criticisms with this movie. The Call of the Wild is aiming to be an old-fashioned adventure movie for family viewing, and it delivers the requisite big warm cinematic hug.
And more than being the story of a dog finding his inner wolf and fulfilling his destiny, it’s also an homage to the natural world. And that, wrapped in the adventures of a dog, is a pretty wonderful thing.
The Call of the Wild. Directed by Chris Sanders. Starring Omar Sy, Harrison Ford, Cara Gee. Opens wide, Friday, February 21.