4/10
I was all prepared to have a good cry at this based-on-a-true-dog-story weepie about canine devotion above and beyond the call of duty, but my eyes remained resolutely dry throughout.
In circumstances which are not made clear, a Akita puppy is posted from japan to the USA and ends up on a railway platform where he is adopted by Richard Gere, despite the opposition of wife Joan Allen. And then we're into dog lover's heaven as the two of them bond like nobody's business. So far, so smoochy, but also pretty dull and unremarkable. Then something happens which changes the whole business, and if I tell you (like most film reviewers have), then you will miss the surprise. Which also means that I can't tell you the main point of the film, but since I'm not recommending it, that doesn't really matter. I imagine the film is aimed at dog owners (and I am not one), but it seemed curiously uninvolving, perhaps because Hachi, although relatively cute as a puppy, is a lot less so as a fully grown dog, and once we learn about his remarkable behaviour (which I can't tell you about), then there isn't really anywhere else for the film to go. Quite what a wonderful actress like Joan Allen is doing in a film like this (apart from getting paid), I can't say. And I also found the bookend structure, in which a boy tells his class the story of Hachi in front of his class, to be both unnecessary and absurd. How many class presentations go on for an hour and a half? But my main complaint is that I was all ready to saturate a box of kleenex and never got as far as blowing my nose.
