A Dog’s Purpose Is The Most Heartwarming Film You’ll See This Year: Movie Review

Starring: Josh Gad(as the voice of Bailey), Dennis Quaid,

Directed by :Lasse Halstrom

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This unabashed ode to canine affections is so pure at heart, you are inclined to overlook its syrupy over-sentimental tone of narration and look directly at a heart that beats purely for the sake of unconditional love.

A Dog’s Purpose is a simple doggie’s tale told with the kind of concise sighing punctuations that  director Lasse Hallstrom(The Cider House Rules,An Unfinished Life, The Hundred-Foot Journey) specializes in.

Here , in telling the story of a dog that lives through several lives with loving doting caring owners(well, almost all of them are loving, etc) the director lays open all the doors and windows of the heart to undertake an excursion that is evangelical and exhilarating.The film’s presiding premise of a love so pure it transcends languages and lives, is so fluently pounded into the narrative , we are often left teary-eyed , stifling sobs as Bailey, the dog-hero(or the “boss dog” as he’s called by his beloved owner) goes from one beautifully crafted and lovingly shot episode after another.

As director Lasse does a  ‘Lassie’(remember the beloved doggie tvseries and movies from the 1960s?) we  are made a  part of a world which is arcadian in spirit and ruptured by tragedy once in a while:  a devastating fire, a  drunken scene of domestic violence, and, worst of all, our dog-hero abandoned by one of his owners…such are the interludes that shake our belief  in the triumph of humanism over all adversity.

We first meet Bailey as attached to a little boy Ethan.The bonding between the two  is so deep and indelible, we know it will outlast fate’s temporal blows . The film makes  a panoramic statement  on the quality of inviolable affection shared  between a canine  and his owner.  You don’t have to be a  dog lover to love A Dog’s Purpose. But if you are a dog lover this is the film you want to take with you  when  are marooned on an island.