Dog: Two War Vets Hit the Road on Six Legs in Channing Tatum’s Heal-Good Directing Debut
By Jennie Punter
Rating: B-minus
In his bittersweet directing debut, Channing Tatum stars as a restless off-duty Army Ranger tasked with escorting an edgy canine comrade-in-arms 1,500 miles down the Pacific coast to the funeral of its former handler.
Dog was inspired in part by War Dog: A Soldier’s Best Friend, the 2017 HBO documentary produced by Tatum and his longtime producing partner Reid Carolin (who codirects Dog, and also has “story by” and screenwriting credits). And it's easy to assume its emotional truth is rooted there—even though the dog and soldier in this movie barely make it to the BFF stage.
Jackson (Channing Tatum) and Lulu both try to leave the war behind in Dog.
Billed as a buddy comedy filled with the kinds of crazy hijinks and hilarious calamities that lead to bonding, Dog is actually a road movie, propelled by traumas of the past and the sadness of the moments at hand.
While this is not a bad thing, Dog does feel tonally wonky at times. We may seem to be in a comedy sequence, and then the vibe is quashed by a stark reminder of the lasting damage of war, or vice versa. (What can I say? My dog-meets-man movie expectations are probably hardwired by the original Turner & Hooch, one of the first studio comedies I ever reviewed.)
The title sequence of Dog gives us the backstory on Lulu, a Belgian Malinois. As we flip through the pages of a scrapbook that documents her puppyhood, training, and tour of duty as a combat dog in Baghdad, the strains of country-folk legend John Prine’s “How Lucky”—a 1979 tune about fuzzy memories—gives us a hint about the film’s mood and its human protagonist: “Well, there was all these things that I don’t think I remember / Hey, how lucky can one man get?”
Jackson Briggs (Tatum) is living alone, slinging fast-food burgers, and occasionally waking up on the floor. He’s trying to finagle his way back into active duty on a security detail, but his captain won’t sign off because he’s not convinced Briggs has recovered sufficiently from a brain injury he sustained in Iraq.
Briggs gets some good news when he’s called to the Ranger battalion to be reintroduced to Lulu, the special operations dog that was a part of his unit in Iraq. The dog’s former handler, Sergeant Rodriguez, who died driving his car into a tree, had been trying to rehabilitate the dog but without success.
“This isn't the same dog,” Briggs is told. “She's got every combat trigger in the book.”
If Briggs can transport the dog from Washington state to the family funeral in Arizona with no screw ups—and then drop her off at a nearby base where she will be “assessed,” possibly for the last time—he might get a chance at that security detail.
This end goal and the prospect of having a little fun along the way are the only things on his mind. The dog—whom he calls Dog and never by her name—is a receptacle for his stream-of-consciousness chatter but is otherwise a nuisance.
At every stop Briggs makes—a hipster bar to pick up women, a happy older couple’s cannabis grow-house, a fancy hotel in San Francisco, a jail cell in San Francisco, an army buddy’s backyard family barbecue, an encampment of homeless folks under a boardwalk—we see different paths his life could still take.
We also start to see scenes from the dog's perspective, signaling that she is starting to listen to Briggs. Tatum moves comfortably in this role, flexing his chatter chops and his physique to stay on mission, but allowing room for quiet vulnerability, thinking, and pain.
Dog is a bumpy, unpredictable ride because that’s what our heroes are on, but it’s all delivered with a gentle touch and authentic feeling that assure us that Briggs and Lulu are heading in the right direction.
Dog is directed by Channing Tatum and Reid Carolin, and stars Channing Tatum, Kevin Nash, Jane Adams, Ethan Suplee, Zuzu, Britta, and Lana 5. Opens in theatres Friday, February 18.