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Is “A Dog’s Journey” one of the sweetest canine films out there, or one of the meanest? While I generally favor the latter reading, the gentle sniffling mixed with occasional awws and chuckles that broke out during my screening suggests the majority of the audiences will understandably lean otherwise, as they did with the film’s 2017 predecessor, “A Dog’s Purpose.” In theory, this unconditional affection seems mighty unjust for a shameless family franchise that kills an average of four to five dogs per movie, sometimes, in unspeakably wretched fashions—seriously, where is John Wick when you need him? And yet, as visually uninspired and ideologically conservative as it may be, there seems to be something beguiling about the series that keeps one (including myself, admittedly) on a short leash. Turns out, very few are immune to the sneaky suggestion that certain dogs and humans are meant for each other for life.   

This is indeed the philosophy behind TV veteran Gail Mancuso ’s “A Dog’s Journey,” which follows in the paw prints of its Lasse Hallström-directed ancestor with its assembly line of doggie fatalities. (Every dog-loving cinephile’s most cherished website “DoesTheDogDie.com” must be having a field trip with these films.) And before you cry out “spoiler alert,” know that spelling out the mounting corpses of our four-legged furry pals in these tearjerkers is not exactly a wrongdoing. Adapted from W. Bruce Cameron’s best-selling novels, the pair of syrupy films follows a Buddhist philosophy, imagining a world in which a dog’s spirit reincarnates in the body of a new adorable puppy (somehow, voiced by Josh Gad even when it’s a female) and pursues its original human to eternity.

“Journey” picks up where “Purpose” had left off, dropping us on a tranquil Midwestern farm ran by the impossibly wholesome couple Ethan ( Dennis Quaid ) and his wife Hannah ( Marg Helgenberger ). Their carefree “Boss Dog” Bailey, a handsome Great Pyrenees Bernese Mountain Dog, runs around the picturesque fields and happily chases his own tail, while keeping a watchful eye on Ethan and Hannah’s baby granddaughter CJ (affably played by Abby Ryder and Kathryn Presscott in later ages), parented by the couple’s heavy-drinking widowed daughter-in-law Gloria ( Betty Gilpin ). Bailey exits the picture soon enough—poor Boss Dog has a cancerous lump—but returns promptly in the body of Molly the mischievous Beagle, reuniting with the 11-year-old CJ to keep a promise he’s made to Ethan. Now living away from her grandparents with the negligent Gloria, CJ finds the kind of comfort and support every child needs in Molly.

Our determined pooch returns again and again as Bailey drops dead in a continuous loop: once, as the African Boerboel Big Dog living on a roadside convenience store (or, “a house made of snacks,” as he calls it), and then as the snippy Terrier Max. Meanwhile, CJ goes through her own transformation and finds herself in the unforgiving streets of New York City as a budding musician with a severe case of stage fright. A series of mean boyfriends—one, a dangerous stalker responsible for Molly’s horrific death—doesn’t help with her insecurity, until she stumbles upon her beloved childhood friend Trent ( Henry Lau ) and falls in love. (Guess what wet-nosed character masterminds the reunion with a paw shake and tail wag?)

Rest assured, there is sufficient amount of cuteness to go around in “Journey,” complete with dutiful canine humor around pooping, face licking, and the perpetual pursuit of food. But while the film engages with the sadness and despair of certain life crises head-on—an unexpected case of terminal illness is especially well-conceived in that regard—it strangely falls short of treating others with the empathy and seriousness they deserve. Written by Cameron, Maya Forbes , Cathryn Michon and Wallace Wolodarsky , the story is outright hostile to Gloria, a paper-thin character whose mourning and alcoholism receives a cruel one-dimensional treatment. A gold-digging ex-girlfriend of Trent suffers in the hands of a similar caricaturized vision. And yet, no one comes to a film like this, where the world is divided into absolute goods and evils, for nuance or subtlety. If you can look behind the flat visuals and prescriptive pleasantries of “Journey,” you might just get on board with its compelling-enough tale of lost souls, found and lifted up by their forever-loyal pooches. On this earth and beyond.

Tomris Laffly

Tomris Laffly is a freelance film writer and critic based in New York. A member of the New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC), she regularly contributes to  RogerEbert.com , Variety and Time Out New York, with bylines in Filmmaker Magazine, Film Journal International, Vulture, The Playlist and The Wrap, among other outlets.

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A Dog's Journey (2019)

Rated PG for thematic content, some peril and rude humor.

120 minutes

Dennis Quaid as Ethan

Betty Gilpin as Gloria

Josh Gad as Bailey (voice)

Abby Ryder Fortson as Young CJ

Marg Helgenberger as Hannah

Kathryn Prescott as CJ

Ian Chen as Young Trent

Daniela Barbosa as Liesl

Jake Manley as Shane

• Gail Mancuso

Writer (book)

• W. Bruce Cameron
• Maya Forbes
• Cathryn Michon
• Wallace Wolodarsky

Cinematographer

• Rogier Stoffers
• Robert Komatsu

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‘A Dog’s Journey’ Review: Good Boys (and Girls) on a Mission

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By Glenn Kenny

• May 16, 2019

The preponderance of viral dog videos proves that the animals are sufficiently attractive, intelligent and resourceful that they don’t need stories about their reincarnation to entertain and warm hearts. Nevertheless, we now have “A Dog’s Journey,” the sequel to “A Dog’s Purpose” (2017), all about a multiple-incarnation pooch on a mission to protect a human.

We begin with the always-welcome Dennis Quaid, as a farmer with a strong bond to the shaggy St. Bernard/Australian shepherd mix Bailey. As Bailey is put to sleep, Quaid’s character begs the dog to look after his granddaughter CJ.

Among the many challenges in CJ’s then-toddler life is Gloria, a single mom possessed of more hostility than the entirety of Elvis Costello’s 1970s output. Gloria becomes a drunk and the older CJ adopts Molly, a delightful beagle/Cavalier King Charles spaniel mix who is, yes, possessed by the spirit of Bailey. (Josh Gad provides the cloying dog voice-over regardless of the gender of any individual beast.)

Adult CJ moves to New York and becomes Maggie Rogers with stage fright, or something like that. There, the new incarnation Max, a Yorkshire terrier, “improves” CJ’s life by making her homeless.

Directed by Gail Mancuso, the movie is packed with cardboard characters who only exist to check off bad-things-happen plot points. Stick around long enough and irritation may turn into incredulity as “Journey,” with the enthusiasm of a pep squad turning cartwheels, flips an increasing number of morbidity-skirting twists. Could you have predicted, when Molly learned how to be a cancer sniffer, that Max would retain that talent and use it to diagnose a central character?

I suppose it’s a genuine achievement that a movie packed with as much delightful canine (and agreeable human) talent as this one should be so insufferable.

Rated PG for mature dog themes. Running time: 1 hour 48 minutes.

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Film Review: ‘A Dog’s Journey’

Canine reincarnation is once more the narrative throughline of this gloopy, goofy, mostly good-natured sequel to 'A Dog's Purpose.'

By Guy Lodge

Film Critic

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You know things are bad for women in Hollywood when there’s one female dog featured in canine cutefest “A Dog’s Journey,” and it still gets to be voiced by Josh Gad. That is, admittedly, an unavoidable consequence of this family franchise’s curious Buddhism-for-beginners premise: the idea that one mind and soul can be carried through the bodies of multiple mutts over the course of eternity, with Gad as our perky spiritual ferry through repeated rounds of Rover reincarnation. As if to compensate, Gail Mancuso ‘s blandly agreeable sequel to the boy-focused 2017 hit “A Dog’s Purpose” reorients its human narrative around a young woman’s troubled road to love and self-fulfilment — via the trusty companionship of various devoted pups.

That aside, fans of the first film will be delighted to find the formula pretty much untweaked, with a steady stream of corn-syrup sentiment binding what would otherwise amount to a feature-length montage of adorable doggy reaction GIFs. Like the first film — which grossed over $200 million worldwide despite early controversy over on-set animal treatment — “A Dog’s Journey” largely succeeds in spite of its own ickiest instincts. Even as its storytelling hovers on the border between capable and risible, the film knows exactly which dog-lover buttons to push, particularly those nearest the tear ducts. Replacing “Purpose” director Lasse Hallström (who retains an executive producer credit) to make a rather anonymous debut feature, Emmy-winning TV veteran Mancuso (“Modern Family,” “Roseanne”) offers less prettified styling and more sitcom-style beats. Commercially, it should bark up equivalent numbers to its predecessor.

Once more drawn from a novel by W. Bruce Cameron — who has a hand in the screenplay, along with three other writers — the new film picks up more or less where the previous one left off, with Bailey, a regal St. Bernard-Australian Shepherd cross, living out his golden years on an idyllic Michigan farm with doting master Ethan ( Dennis Quaid ) and his wife Hannah (Marg Helgenberger). New to the family are Gloria (Betty Gilpin, fresh from her breakout in TV’s “Glow”), the (gasp) dog-agnostic widow of Hannah’s late son, and her infant daughter CJ, whose future upbringing is a bone of contention between Gloria and her oppressively wholesome in-laws. When Gloria finally leaves, whisking CJ off to Chicago, Bailey dies not long after: In the dog’s final moments, and certainly the film’s most unabashedly weepy scene, Ethan orders its wandering spirit to look after his granddaughter.

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While this franchise steers clear of any clear political affiliation, conservative family values predominate: Single motherhood, in particular, gets an unfortunate bad rap as Gloria, having turned her back on Ethan and Hannah’s heartland haven, swiftly turns into an abusive, daytime-drinking harpy. Good thing Bailey — now in the guise of eager beagle Molly — is on hand to help 11-year-old CJ through her adolescent years, complete with bad boyfriend trouble, burgeoning singer-songwriter ambitions and the steadfast support of best friend Trent (played as a child by Ian Chen, and later by K-pop heartthrob Henry Lau). (He loves dogs himself, just in case it weren’t entirely clear that he’s The One.)

After finishing school and falling out with her mom, it’s off to New York City for CJ, now played by appealing Brit actress Kathryn Prescott, of “Skins” fame. There, a different Bailey carrier — feisty Yorkshire terrier Max — sees her through assorted personal crises, all while nudging proceedings toward their plain-as-day, home-sweet-home conclusion. Along the way, the rather cluttered script goes through some high-stakes narrative pivots that subsequently leave almost no mark at all: A sudden, momentary shift into stalker-thriller territory is jarring, while the brisk introduction and resolution of a whole cancer subplot in ten minutes flat must be some kind of industry record.

Still, these are the few adult-oriented elements of Cameron’s novel that have survived the stringently PG-minded adaptation; darker, more intriguing themes of suicide and eating disorders have been shed like a dog’s winter coat. After all, it’d be hard to write pooch-perspective wisecracks about such matters, and harder still for Gad to deliver them in his constant, mollifying tone of aw-shucks optimism. Cameron’s books may not have been for children, but their film versions know on which side their doggy biscuits are buttered. That’s probably for the best, given the overall glibness of the human drama here, though Gilpin deserves credit for trying to carve some emotional complexities into her lightly drawn villain.

Otherwise, the bounding canine ensemble takes the prize for, well, best in show: The endless quips about bacon and butt-sniffing may wear thin, but it’s hard to take no joy in a film that treats a jowly boerboel chasing after a receding car much like a melodrama heroine left yearning on a train platform, as Mark Isham’s thick, stringtastic score slobbers away in the background. One wishes the film were a bit more inventive with its dog’s-eye view: the odd ground-level action shot aside, there isn’t much to cinematically suggest how animals see the world differently. (Surely a sequence that places one of Bailey’s incarnations in a recovery cone is crying out for a POV-based visual gag.) Mostly, however, “A Dog’s Journey” is content simply to point out how our furry friends are so like us — or, at the very least, a lot like Josh Gad.

Reviewed at Cineworld Wood Green, London, May 4, 2019. Running time: 108 MIN.

• Production: A Universal Pictures release of an Amblin Entertainment, Reliance Entertainment presentation of a Pariah production in an association with Alibaba Pictures Group, Walden Media. Producer: Gavin Polone. Executive producers: Seth William Meier, Lasse Hallström, Luyuan Fan, Wei Zhang. Co-producers: Holly Bario, Ian Dimerman.
• Crew: Director: Gail Mancuso. Screenplay: W. Bruce Cameron, Maya Forbes, Cathryn Michon, Wallace Wolodarsky, adapted from the novel by Cameron. Camera (color, widescreen): Rogier Stoffers. Editor: Robert Komatsu. Music: Mark Isham.
• With: Josh Gad (voice), Kathryn Prescott, Betty Gilpin, Dennis Quaid, Marg Helgenberger , Abby Ryder Fortson, Henry Lau, Ian Chen, Conrad Coates, Jake Manley, Daniela Barbosa, Kevin Claydon.

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A Dog’s Journey review – corny canine caper

Bailey the body-hopping hound bounds back in this unashamed agglomeration of poop jokes and puppy eyes

T his dogtainment is the sequel to A Dog’s Purpose (2017), the Lasse Hallström holiday timekiller chiefly notable for its faithful translation of author W Bruce Cameron’s bizarre concept: its onscreen walkies were narrated by a free-floating canine spirit (bearing the voice of Frozen’s Josh Gad) who jumped from dog’s body to dog’s body like Scott Bakula in some canine Quantum Leap reboot.

On a second runout, that USP seems less eccentric, but equally some of the oddball novelty has worn off. Four credited screenwriters – including former Simpsons scribes Maya Forbes and Wally Wolodarsky, upping the poop-joke quotient – merely use that astral projection to usher another conveyor belt of pooches through much the same cornily conservative scenarios the studios churned out in Rin Tin Tin ’s heyday.

Only its restlessness feels novel, tailored as it is to wet-nosed viewers made distractible by hours of scrolling through floof-centric Instagram feeds. Bailey, spirit Gad’s ultimate canine destination the first time round, has settled down on the ever work-shirted Dennis Quaid ’s perpetually sun-dappled farm, yet – tissues at the ready – he hasn’t long for this world. Our spirit guide must thus find his way back in another form, an odyssey that entails shepherding Quaid’s songbird granddaughter Clarity Jane (Kathryn Prescott) away from Glow’s Betty Gilpin, marked as a Bad Mother by her tendency to liberally decant pinot grigio in the hours before sundown.

Any cheap tears can be attributed to the way Cameron’s writing rubs up against earthlier experiences: seeing out thunderstorms alongside your pet, sudden health crises, ominous visits from the vet. (The finale goes full-blown Six Feet Under, with Mark Isham’s score shamelessly recycling Sia’s Breathe Me.) Yet, as signalled by one character’s cursory cancer treatment, there’s nothing much for the human performers to sink their teeth into. Quaid eventually succumbs to comical old-age latex, having long ceded the screen to the slobbering selling points.

By their very nature, dog lovers may be more forgiving and enthusiastic, but much of it is reaction shots of trained mutts, right through to the closing-credit snapshots of the crew’s Forever Friends, this movie is almost literally all puppy eyes.

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‘a dog’s journey’: film review.

In 'A Dog's Journey,' a sequel to 'A Dog's Purpose,' Kathryn Prescott joins the ensemble as a troubled young woman whom Bailey, the frequently reincarnated canine, keeps coming back to help.

By Leslie Felperin

Leslie Felperin

Contributing Film Critic

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Centered on the soul of a loyal mutt (amiably voiced by Josh Gad ) who has the spiritual equivalent of a season ticket that keeps sending him back to earth after several deaths, A Dog’s Purpose and now its sequel,  A Dog’s Journey,  serve up a sugar-coated, bastardized form of Buddhism for pet lovers. They’re easy films to sneer and snark at, especially given that both, and the first one especially, trade in a certain kind of wholesome, backlit, wheat-field-swathed image of America (actually shot in Manitoba, Canada).

Even worse, both films are ruthlessly efficient when it comes to jerking tears. Some prideful viewers are likely to feel resentful over how well the pain of losing a beloved animal companion is evoked. The tools are nothing more complicated than a likable cast (that goes for the dog and human actors); competent direction (Gail Mancuso, who oversaw episodes of Modern Family and Gilmore Girls , takes charge of the leash in Journey  from Purpose ‘s Lasse Halstrom); a surging score by Mark Isham to punch up the plangency; and some corny but hugely relatable plot devices. Ivan Pavlov himself (the original guy who taught dogs to salivate at the sound of a bell) would be impressed.

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Don’t tell anyone I said this, but the result is not only pleasingly emotionally purgative, but also has some elements worthy of genuine admiration, despite the fact that the third word in the title is one that should now be entirely banished from the English language for its precious, psychobabble connotations. Aside from that, the screenplay by W. Bruce Cameron (author of the novels on which both  Purpose and Journey are   based), Cathryn Michon, Maya Forbes and Wally Wolodarsky navigates competently between providing bereavement-based melodrama and butt-sniffing jokes, the twin poles of the Dog’s  mini-franchise. Along the way, with a story centered on a female protagonist this time, it quietly boosts a message of resilience and self-belief to young girl audiences, advising them that it’s always a smarter move to love nice boys and dogs rather than abusive jerks and pet haters.

Purpose  left off with our canine hero Bailey, at this point living in the body of a Great Pyrenees Bernese Mountain Dog, reunited with both Ethan ( Dennis Quaid ), who was Bailey’s owner as a child back in the late 1950s, and Hannah (Marg Helgenberger), whom Ethan used to date when they were teens. As Journey  begins, sometime in the late 1980s/early 1990s, two new members of the family have moved into the Norman Rockwell-style clapboard farmhouse Ethan’s inherited: Hannah’s daughter-in-law Gloria (Betty Gilpin, from GLOW ) and her toddler Clarity (Emma Volk), also known as C.J.

Bailey is, as per usual, mostly focused on bacon falling on the floor in this period. He doesn’t truly understand what’s going on when Gloria — grieving over the off-camera death of C.J.’s father, who was Hannah’s son, and also a budding alcoholic and unconfident mother who feels jealous of Hannah and Ethan’s bond with her daughter — decides to up and leave with C.J., citing unfounded suspicions that they’re after C.J.’s inheritance money. The dog misses his small, pork-product-dispensing companion, but gets on with life in his phlegmatic, doggy way. When the time comes for Ethan to have the now-aged Bailey put to sleep permanently (arguably the film’s most sob-inducing scene), he asks Bailey to keep an eye over C.J. in his future lives.

Conveniently, the universe contrives to help him do just that, bringing Bailey back first as a female Beaglier (beagle/King Charles spaniel cross) named Molly that ends up being adopted by C.J. (Abby Ryder Fortson), now 11 years old and fending for herself as best she can while Gloria works through a variety of unsuitable men, many glasses of chardonnay and her few remaining hopes of ever having a solo singing career.

The script, Mancuso and the cast, especially the deeply watchable Gilpin and engaging up-and-comer Kathryn Prescott (who takes over as C.J. once she’s past puberty) effectively limn the layered complexities of this dysfunctional single-mom/lone girl-child menage, which scars C.J. in ways that only a loving dog can compensate for. Gloria fat shames her, cuts her off from her grandparents and neglects her horribly, which leads to her dating a skeevy guy named Shane (Jake Manley) — who might as well have a T-shirt with “Potential Stalker” blazoned across it — instead of her sweet childhood friend Trent (first Ian Chen, then later on Canadian K-pop star Henry Lau), who is always there for her. The core romantic advice from the Dog’s  films seems to be “never date anyone you haven’t known since childhood.”

It takes a few reincarnations for Bailey before his soul (now encased by a Yorkshire terrier), C.J. and Trent to all end up in New York City (playing itself with swagger), where the plot veers for a while into a young-people-face-cancer story, in the manner of The Fault in Our Stars  and the like. This extra layer of morbidity adds an interesting spin on the two films’ ongoing preoccupation with death, raising the stakes by having not just the loss of a beloved pet in the offing, but also the loss of a beloved friend. Tellingly, both potential losses are seen as equally devastating.

Nevertheless, it’s best not to think too much about the moral logic of Journey  and where it stands on the respective value of humans versus other mammals and animals. Or about why Bailey keeps getting reborn and coming back to these particular people and not, say, Joe (Conrad Coates), the nice man who runs a gas station near Pittsburgh, with whom Bailey lives when he comes back for a while as an African Boerboel named Big Dog. After all, Joe treats Big Dog just as well as any of the other dog owners and lives, as the inner voice of Bailey exclaims happily, in a “house made of snacks.”

Distribution: Universal Pictures Production: An Amblin Entertainment, Reliance Entertainment presentation in association with Walden Media, Alibaba Pictures of a Pariah production   Cast: Kathryn Prescott, Abby Ryder Fortson, Emma Volk, Josh Gad, Betty Gilpin, Marg Helgenberger, Henry Lau, Dennis Quaid, Ian Chen, Jake Manley, Daniela Barbosa, Conrad Coates Director: Gail Mancuso Screenwriters: W. Bruce Cameron and Cathryn Michon, Maya Forbes and Wally Wolodarsky, based on the novel by W. Bruce Cameron Producer: Gavin Polone Executive producers: Seth William Meier, Lasse Hallstrom, Luyuan Fan, Wei Zhang Director of photography: Rogier Stoffers Production designer: Eric Fraser Costume designer: Pattie Henderson Editor: Robert Komatsu Music: Mark Isham Casting: John Papsidera

Rating PG; 108 minutes

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‘A Dog’s Journey’ Film Review: Reincarnating Dog Returns to the Margins of a Young Girl’s Troubles

In this fluffy, sappy sequel, it’s heroine CJ who goes on the journey while the canine antics feel mostly extraneous

There is apparently a sizable overlap between people who like films in which cute dogs scamper around happily, and people who like films in which cute dogs drop dead every half an hour. In 2017, “A Dog’s Purpose” catered to both groups by telling the tale of Bailey, whose soul transmigrates into the body of a newborn pup whenever he dies. He is granted a different name, breed, and (sometimes) gender with each metempsychosis, but his enthusiastic thoughts are always voiced by Josh Gad, and he retains his loyalty to his favorite master, Ethan, played in the film’s later scenes by Dennis Quaid.

Critics agreed that “A Dog’s Purpose” was, well, a dog, but Bailey, who can recall his past lives, is back in the sequel, “A Dog’s Journey”.

Again, it is a glossily nostalgic and moralistic Nicholas Sparks-style melodrama co-written by W. Bruce Cameron, and adapted from his novel. But it doesn’t have quite the same pedigree as “A Dog’s Purpose.” That film was directed by Lasse Hallstrom, whose output — including, of course, “My Life As A Dog” — has earned numerous Oscar nominations. For the sequel, Hallstrom has handed the reins, or rather the leash, to Gail Mancuso, a sitcom director making her big-screen debut.

But while “A Dog’s Journey” never looks any better than a TV movie, it is more satisfying than “A Dog’s Purpose,” largely because it revolves around a single human-canine relationship. The first film gave much of its running time to Bailey’s incarnations away from Ethan. The second film, a shameless heart-warmer and tear-jerker aimed squarely at tween- and teenage girls, focuses on Bailey’s efforts to stay with Ethan’s step-grandaughter. In other words, “A Dog’s Purpose” was about a dog’s journey, whereas in “A Dog’s Journey,” the dog has a purpose.

The story picks up where the last one left off: Bailey, now an aging St. Bernard known as Buddy, lives on an idyllic Michigan farm with Ethan and his wife, Hannah (Marg Helgenberger, taking over from Peggy Lipton). Their immaculate farmhouse has two other occupants. One is Hannah’s widowed daughter-in-law Gloria (Betty Gilpin), the other is Gloria’s toddler, Clarity Jane, a name which is mercifully abbreviated to CJ. Much to Hannah and Ethan’s concern, Gloria is less interested in playing with CJ than in drinking white wine. (In “A Dog’s Purpose,” Ethan’s father was an alcoholic, too, so perhaps Cameron was intent on examining the subject from all angles. Or perhaps he was short on ideas.)

Soon, the resentful Gloria leaves the farm and takes CJ with her to suburban Chicago. Not long afterwards, Bailey/Buddy dies, and — following a brief interlude in an Elysian wheat field, where you half-expect him to gambol past Maximus from “Gladiator” — he is reborn as a female puppy who will be named Mollie. Mollie immediately meets 11-year-old CJ (Abby Ryder Fortson, “Ant-Man”), and sticks with her as she grows into a teenager (Kathryn Prescott, “24: Legacy”) who prefers to hang out with grungy bad boy Shane (Jake Manley, Netflix’s “The Order”) than with her best friend Trent (Henry Lau, a pop star in China and South Korea).

It’s here that the fundamental cruelty of the franchise’s concept becomes glaring. To keep the gimmick going, Mollie/Bailey has to meet an untimely end, and so, right on schedule, s/he takes another trip to the big wheat field in the sky. The film then skips through Bailey’s next life in a Pittsburgh garage, and concentrates on his life after that, when he is a Yorkshire Terrier named Max. Inevitably, the mystical pooch quickly locates CJ, who is now living in New York with another terrible boyfriend, Barry (Kevin Claydon, Netflix’s “21 Thunder”). Much like Shane, Barry sneers at CJ’s dreams of becoming a singer-songwriter, although, to be fair, when we hear her singing in a New York bar, her bland performance suggests that maybe those boyfriends know what they’re talking about.

“A Dog’s Journey” is a softer and fluffier animal than the source novel, in which CJ attempts suicide and Gloria is stricken with Alzheimer’s. True, there is death and disease aplenty in the film, but the central dramatic question is whether CJ will find the right man, and there isn’t much tension there. In the conservative world of “A Dog’s Journey,” with its fuzzy combination of Buddhist doctrine and Christian values, characters are either family-oriented and obviously good, or they are blatantly awful. Not even CJ, with her disastrous taste in men, can fail to work out, eventually, who falls into which category.

So what is Bailey’s purpose in all of this? There are a couple of scenes in which he literally pulls his owner in the right direction, but his main job is to balance the film’s traumas with his naive internal monologue and his copious bodily emissions. (“A Dog’s Journey” may not compete with Alfonso Cuarón’s “Roma” in many respects, but it certainly gives it a run for its money in the canine feces department.)

These antics are all very adorable, but they are hardly crucial to the plot — and that could the screenplay’s major flaw. It is CJ who goes on a journey. Bailey might as well have stayed at home in his basket.

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A Dog's Journey Reviews

Whatever you want to say about any of the W. Bruce Cameron adaptations, by the time A Dog’s Journey's credits rolled, I had overdosed on cuteness.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 20, 2022

The film celebrates family, reconciliation and loyalty.

Full Review | Aug 12, 2021

A truly high-quality production that smartly pays attention to pacing, performances, cinematography, score, messages and...[it] authentically pays off.

Full Review | Feb 11, 2020

Even with a relatively merciful runtime of a hundred minutes, A Dog's Journey still manages to wear out its welcome before the credits roll.

Full Review | Jan 18, 2020

What if dogs really aren't this annoying when we get to hear inside their head? What if they're actually very smart or lovely?

Full Review | Sep 30, 2019

This shaggy dog sequel scratches all the designated spots.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Sep 9, 2019

I went into it feeling a bit low and came out of it feeling a bit better. It's a reminder that sometimes there's a beauty in just going along with ordinary life, which is short, even more so for dogs.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 27, 2019

Much of this drama is entertaining and, at times, compelling, even if it won't take a Pekingese long to work out where the plot is going.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 19, 2019

If there are to be more sequels, I'm hoping that future Baileys cut the chat and hark back to a time when heroism trumped cuteness and movie dogs left the punchlines to the human members of the cast.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Aug 19, 2019

It's all sweet, silly and kind of spooky as it was the first time around.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 15, 2019

There is so much obvious emotional manipulation occurring in 'A Dog's Journey,' you may as well be handed a box of tissues and a fluffy pillow when you enter the cinema.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 14, 2019

It is the sequel to the 2017 film A Dog's Purpose, but the new film stands on its own.

Full Review | Jul 30, 2019

The film is aimed at those who turn their long-suffering pets into emotional prosthetics, characterized by unconditional surrender to their masters. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Jul 2, 2019

Sure it's a whole lot of fluff, but you just can't help but go along and pet this story as it strolls along.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 15, 2019

'A Dog's Journey' has more bite than you might think.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 5, 2019

A Dog's Journey is a series of moments, tenuously connected with little impact or consequence, with Josh Gad narrating the whole thing in an increasingly irritating juvenile tone.

Full Review | May 27, 2019

A stale melodrama that doesn't exhibit much bite, much bark, or, really, much of anything.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | May 24, 2019

Warmhearted story about a reincarnated dog through several lives. And let's hear it for the dog actors, these guys are award worthy.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | May 24, 2019

I think it works better than the original due to following one character over the years rather than many, thus making it feel more cohesive rather than disjointed. (Full Content Review for Parents - Violence, Tense Family Material, etc. - Available)

Full Review | May 24, 2019

A Dog's Journey exists solely to allow moviegoers to feel feelings about dogs for 108 minutes. It is saccharine and unrelentingly sentimental, gleefully pushing emotional buttons.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | May 23, 2019

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A dog's journey, common sense media reviewers.

Sequel is as sentimental and emotional as the first film.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Strong messages about the life-changing bond, unco

Ethan and Hannah continue to be wonderful role mod

A dog dies on different occasions. In one particul

A married couple embraces, dances, briefly kisses.

Infrequent language includes a few uses of "idiot,

Recognizable brands include Dodge, MacBook, iPhone

Quite a bit of drinking by Gloria, who's nearly al

Parents need to know that A Dog's Journey is the sequel to 2017's sentimental A Dog's Purpose , both of which are based on W. Bruce Cameron's best-selling books about a dog (voiced by Josh Gad) that's reincarnated again and again with the purpose of finding a specific human to protect and love. This…

Positive Messages

Strong messages about the life-changing bond, unconditional love, and connection between dogs and their humans. Promotes idea that people aren't meant to go through life alone, that they're happier and more fulfilled with both human partners and animal companions. Clear themes of empathy, perseverance.

Positive Role Models

Ethan and Hannah continue to be wonderful role models: kind, helpful, disciplined, loving. They take good care of Bailey and CJ. The dog always believes his/her purpose is to defend, protect, and love his/her human companions, nevers stops looking for or protecting his/her human. CJ is lonely and sad at times but loves her dog and her best friend, Trent, who's supportive, generous, encouraging. Gloria is an alcoholic and neglectful mother but eventually takes responsibility, asks for forgiveness.

Violence & Scariness

A dog dies on different occasions. In one particularly painful scene, Bailey dies in Ethan's arms receiving a euthanizing shot. Another version of Bailey dies in an accident, others die of old age. An abusive boyfriend purposely crashes into his ex-girlfriend's car. Another boyfriend is verbally demeaning, grabs his girlfriend. An older adult dies surrounded by people (and pet) he loves. An alcoholic mom is neglectful, leaving her daughter alone a lot of nights. A girl is frightened of a storm, upset that her mother isn't around.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

A married couple embraces, dances, briefly kisses. Teens make out in a car. From dog's perspective, a young couple "licks each other's faces" -- like Ethan and Hannah used to when they were younger. At one point, the dog narrates, "They look like they want to lick each other."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Infrequent language includes a few uses of "idiot," "dumb," and "stupid." A mom hurls the word "chubby" like an insult. "Oh my God" as an exclamation.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Recognizable brands include Dodge, MacBook, iPhone, Slim Jim, Cheetos, Whole Foods, Ford, and Jeep.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Quite a bit of drinking by Gloria, who's nearly always shown with a glass of wine or a cocktail in her hand. She's clearly an alcoholic and is often drunk. Shane is obviously a drug dealer -- he exchanges cash for small packets at a party. Minor character smokes cigarettes.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that A Dog's Journey is the sequel to 2017's sentimental A Dog's Purpose , both of which are based on W. Bruce Cameron's best-selling books about a dog (voiced by Josh Gad ) that's reincarnated again and again with the purpose of finding a specific human to protect and love. This time around, Ethan ( Dennis Quaid ) encourages his beloved dying dog to return to find his granddaughter. There's less violence in this one, but there's still an alcoholic, neglectful parent (this time a mother) and an abusive boyfriend who literally crashes into his ex-girlfriend on purpose. Another boyfriend is verbally demeaning and grabs his girlfriend; a minor character smokes. And, yes, the central dog dies -- four times, to be exact, due to sickness, old age, and accidents. But couples don't do much more than hug and kiss, and language is tame ("idiot," "stupid"). As in the first movie, there are clear messages about empathy and companionship, as well as the power of having a pet with whom humans share unconditional love. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Community Reviews

• Parents say (20)
• Kids say (17)

Based on 20 parent reviews

Interesting discussions about this film

Amazing....but made me sob, what's the story.

A DOG'S JOURNEY -- the sequel to 2017's A Dog's Purpose -- is, like the first film, an adaptation of W. Bruce Cameron's best-selling books about a special canine whose memories are reincarnated into a new dog each time it dies. As the sequel begins, Ethan ( Dennis Quaid ), his wife, Hannah ( Marg Helgenberger ), and their beloved dog, Bailey (voiced by Josh Gad ), are living on their Michigan farm and taking care of Hannah's toddler granddaughter, CJ, and widowed daughter-in-law, Gloria ( Betty Gilpin ), after the death of her son. When Gloria, who's angry and neglectful in her grief, takes CJ away to Chicago, Hannah and Ethan are distraught. Right before Bailey eventually dies, Ethan asks him to come back for CJ. And that's what happens: The dog returns as Molly, a puppy that 11-year-old CJ ( Abby Ryder Fortson ) adopts, while her best friend, Trent ( Ian Chen ), adopts Molly's brother Rocky. Years later, CJ (now Kathryn Prescott ) continues to be "Bailey's" purpose, even after more dog deaths and CJ's move to New York City to pursue a music career.

Is It Any Good?

Emotional and syrupy sweet, this sentimental sequel is a tribute to the enduring bond between dogs and their human best friends. Veteran TV director Gail Mancuso continues Lasse Hallstrom 's poignant touch with the story, which switches from focusing on Ethan to CJ. The CJ storyline is less violent than younger Ethan's, but it's still filled with heartbreak, a parent's substance abuse, sadness, and loneliness (save for lifelong friend Trent).

Gilpin is well cast as a selfish, disinterested mother who cares more about warning her daughter about the dangers of getting "chubby" than actually parenting her. Prescott is believable as a vulnerable, unfulfilled young woman whose greatest comfort has always come from her dog. And Henry Lau is almost too good to be true as the earnest adult version of Trent. Gad's voice is eager and steadfast as the various incarnations of Bailey, and, unlike in the first film, A Dog's Journey , audiences stay with the same family of dog owners throughout the story (with the exception of one quick detour). This movie definitely and effectively pulls at the heartstrings, so pet lovers in particular should expect tears to flow at the many tender moments between CJ and Ethan and their dogs. There's even a subplot about one of the dogs being able to detect cancer by scent, an ability a later dog can also display -- with life-saving results. For dog fans, this is a movie that affirms the kinship between humans and dogs; for others, it's a treacly sweet take on some serious issues.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the violent/upsetting scenes in A Dog's Journey. Why do you think they were included? Can a movie have violent parts and still be family friendly?

What do the human characters learn from their dog? How does the story promote empathy ? How does Bailey's journey, lifetime after lifetime, exemplify perseverance ? Why are those important character strengths ?

How does the movie portray drinking ? Are there realistic consequences? Why is that important?

How does the movie address grief, especially in relation to losing a pet? Have you ever had to deal with that? What made you feel better?

What do you think about CJ and Trent's friendship? How is their relationship different from the other romantic relationships depicted in the movie? What's the message about friends who become more?

Movie Details

• In theaters : May 17, 2019
• On DVD or streaming : August 20, 2019
• Cast : Dennis Quaid , Josh Gad , Betty Gilpin
• Director : Gail Mancuso
• Inclusion Information : Middle Eastern/North African actors, Female actors
• Studio : Universal Pictures
• Genre : Drama
• Topics : Cats, Dogs, and Mice , Friendship
• Character Strengths : Empathy , Perseverance
• Run time : 108 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG
• MPAA explanation : thematic content, some peril and rude humor
• Last updated : May 18, 2024

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Home » Movies » Movie Reviews

A Dog’s Journey Review: Live, Die, Repeat… Like a Boss

There isn’t much to say about any of the adaptations of W. Bruce Cameron’s series of books about the trials and tribulations that canines have on the human spirit. You know what you are going to get when walking into your local Cineplex when you watch the thing; you are going to be manipulated with a heavy hand that will be spread thicker than Jiffy. Though, when it comes to movies about dogs (and those glorious 90 seconds in Mulholland Drive ), I’m only a man, and a weak one at that. By the time A Dog’s Journey ‘s credits began to roll, I had already overdosed on cuteness.

A Dog’s Journey is a sequel to the surprise mild hit, 2017’s A Dog’s Purpose , with Dennis Quaid reprising his role as Ethan Montgomery. Josh Gad is back and plays his Boss-Dog, which is the voice of Bailey (and the subsequent reincarnations), an older St. Bernard who loves his owner and his wife Hannah (Marg Helgenberger). Bailey now looks over their grandchild, CJ, like his little sister, a new addition to their clan. CJ’s mother, Gloria ( GLOW’s Betty Gilpin), the widow of Ethan and Hannah’s son, is struggling with life without him and doesn’t seem to appreciate that her in-laws have taken them in with open arms because that’s what family does.

The film was directed by Gail Mancuso ( Gilmore Girls, 30 Rock, Modern Family ), a notable Emmy-winning television director. Her film is the best in the series, including A Dog’s Purpose and A Dog’s Way Home . That doesn’t mean the movie is setting the family film genre on fire; it doesn’t. Especially when you combine the shameless manipulation that’s more saccharine than Splenda, this film will be trampled on by the snobby mob social media mentality types (cough, Film Twitter, cough) that is spread like a disease. This film isn’t meant for them; it is intended for family audiences, parents to get their kids out of the heat with no pool insight and/or to relax then forget about the world for an hour or two. In short, not all entertainment has to be an art form.

The cuteness overload continues the same formula as the original; different reincarnations bring us several adorable dog breeds. Besides Beethoven’s love child Baily, you get a cute female Beagle named Molly, a slobbery Mastiff who is a   big ball of joy named Big Dog. Then there’s Max, an aggressive, ankle-biting Yorkshire Terrier who might have been Chris Harrison in another life. This all is a gluttony buffet of canine proportions.

The ace up its sleeve is Dennis Quaid, a self-assured star who can be put in most any supporting role. Josh Gad might not exhibit Bryce Dallas Howard’s childlike wonderment in Purpose , but his impeccable comic timing does serve the film well here. Kathryn Prescott does a fine job carrying the back end of the film as the adult CJ. While I usually love Betty Gilpin, I found her performance as an alcohol-soaked washout over the top here. However, Henry Lau wins the booby prize here as CJ’s best friend and potential love interest.

When it is all said and done , A Dog’s Journey ‘s “Live Die Repeat” narrative structure is just like the original but told with an approach that is not as ham-fisted as other chapters in the series. The film, if anything, is a pleasant way to spend 90 minutes with the family or yourself, but is only worth rental prices or if you can sneak in all your refreshments and a bag of your popcorn.

Article by Marc Miller

Marc Miller (also known as M.N. Miller) joined Ready Steady Cut in April 2018 as a Film and TV Critic, publishing over 1,600 articles on the website. Since a young age, Marc dreamed of becoming a legitimate critic and having that famous “Rotten Tomato” approved status – in 2023, he achieved that status.

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A Dog's Journey

Where to Watch

Josh Gad (Bailey) Dennis Quaid (Ethan) Kathryn Prescott (CJ) Marg Helgenberger (Hannah) Betty Gilpin (Gloria) Henry Lau (Trent) Abby Ryder Fortson (Young CJ) Ian Chen (Young Trent) Emma Volk (Toddler CJ) Johnny Galecki (Henry)

Gail Mancuso

A dog finds the meaning of his own existence through the lives of the humans he meets.

More about A Dog's Journey

A Dog’s Journey is weapons-grade tearjerker material for dog lovers

No one likes to see a dog die. In fact, most people are so averse to even fictional depictions of canine mortality …

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• DVD & Streaming

A Dog’s Journey

• Comedy , Drama , Kids

Content Caution

In Theaters

• May 17, 2019
• Voice of Josh Gad as Bailey the dog; Kathryn Prescott as C.J.; Betty Gilpin as Gloria; Marg Helgenberger as Hannah; Dennis Quaid as Ethan; Henry Lau as Trent

Home Release Date

• August 20, 2019
• Gail Mancuso

Distributor

• Universal Pictures

Movie Review

As Bailey sits in the kitchen, in his favorite spot by his favorite chair, the aging St. Bernard can’t help but think that life is good on his little farm. His boy, Ethan, well, isn’t quite a boy anymore. And his girl, Hannah, isn’t so girlish either. But that’s OK. There’s still sunshine to lie in, chores to help with, golden fields to romp through and a purpose to fulfill. Oh, and … bacon.

Yeah, bacon is definitely good.

And that’s why the littlest member of their pack, C.J., is one of Bailey’s favorites. That toddling girl is good at playing and snuggling. But she’s great at bacon. All Bailey has to do is wait by her chair at meal times, like now, and any number of treats will drop to the floor and into his domain. Yum. Good C.J.

Now C.J.’s mother, Gloria, isn’t so much fun. Or good. Or nice, even. But since she’s the one who brought CJ into the pack, everything else is forgiven.

Maybe it’s the fact that Gloria sleeps so long or talks endlessly into that tiny box in her hand. Maybe that’s what keeps her so unhappy. Maybe it’s that stuff she drinks that makes her smell funny most of the time. Or maybe it’s that Ethan and Hannah’s son hasn’t come home. He has been gone a long time it seems. (Of course, time is something a dog like Bailey doesn’t really understand very well.) It’s probably bacon. Gloria just needs more bacon. She ought to spend more time around C.J.

Bailey would share.

As Bailey sits and looks lovingly on, though, he can sense that things aren’t so good for the humans he protects and loves. And that feeling is soon proved out as Gloria starts to yell and begins to wave her arms anxiously and grabs C.J. out of her chair.

Then, before you know it, Gloria and little C.J. leave. And this leaves Ethan and Hannah so very sad. Bailey can sense their sorrow as plainly as he can remember the taste of bacon he’s no longer eating.

But soon, Bailey gets sick with a strange lump in his belly. And before Ethan can say, “Good boy, Boss Dog,” things have gotten worse. The lump hurts. Bailey isn’t hungry, even for bacon, anymore. He’s pretty sure that he’ll be leaving soon, too.

Ethan holds Bailey’s head and looks lovingly into his eyes and says nice, soothing things as the doctor lady sticks him with a small, sharp needle. And his time—that thing that dogs know so little of—runs out. “If you come back. You look out for our C.J. You hear me?” Ethan says as he strokes Bailey’s fur.

Bailey understands completely.

You see, this isn’t the first time Bailey has had to leave. He’s left and come back many times before in the form of one canine or another. He always returns and seeks after his purpose. But now, Bailey has a new purpose, a new goal.

Bailey will come back. He’ll come back for little C.J., whatever that takes. He’ll protect her. He’ll help her.

That’s his purpose now. And guiding C.J. as she grows up will be a remarkable journey for both of them.

Positive Elements

One of the biggest positives in this film is Ethan and Hannah’s loving relationship. It’s not that they don’t have their share of worry or disappointment and pain in life. They do. But throughout all of those many ups and downs, they display a consistent love and support for each other and for their family members. They even make repeated attempts to reach out to their estranged daughter-in-law, Gloria, after she leaves with little C.J.

That kind of unconditional consistency is very much a part of Bailey’s character, too. “Loving people is my purpose,” the beloved dog declares, voicing his narrator-like internal monologue throughout the film. He even wants the best for unlikeable people, wishing that Gloria might find a dog someday. “She needs love,” he opines—accurately. And the film likewise emphasizes that intention to see the best in others, to love and be loved, as valued aspirations for dogs and humans alike.

Through most of the film, Gloria is in desperate need of that loving lesson. She makes a number of self-destructive choices that drive an adult C.J. away. But eventually, Gloria comes to understand her failings and takes steps to clean up her life and to reconcile with her daughter.

C.J.’s long-lasting relationship with a friend named Trent is also a great representation of self-sacrificial love and consistency. At different stages, these two both step forward to support and care for each other, through sickness, health and ongoing storms in their respective lives.

There are certainly sad moments here as both beloved pets and beloved people pass away . But through those painful losses, the film gently reminds us that grief is a natural part of life—especially when you love someone. Loss is something we must face, embrace and learn from, it tells us.

Spiritual Elements

This film gently hints at a heaven and a reunion with loved ones after death. The spiritual message here isn’t well defined, but at the end of the film, in the doggy hero’s apparent last passing, Bailey runs to join a loving human who’s waiting for him in an open golden field, representing paradise.

Before that final passing, though, Bailey comes back over and over again, reborn repeatedly into the bodies of different kinds of dogs. Each rebirth is prefaced with him running through that golden field of grass. Bailey’s consciousness, however, is always the same, and he retains memories from previous existences.

How that rebirthing process works or what it means is never explored. What’s more, it’s never hinted at or insinuated that humans might have those same rebirthing experiences. In fact, Bailey’s meeting with a deceased beloved human in that heavenly field, would suggest just the opposite.

Sexual Content

Gloria wears a few cleavage-baring outfits. And while C.J. is only a young girl of 11, Gloria leaves her on her own as she heads out on late-night dates. In one case we see that she has brought the guy back home, and that he’s apparently slept over. Another brief relationship implies that a guy has moved in with Gloria. And later, a twentysomething C.J. is living with her boyfriend, though we never see them in any intimate moments.

After Bailey gets reincarnated the first time, he recognizes that he is now a girl puppy (played in a humorous way). We see couples kissing, something Bailey repeatedly describes as people “licking each other.”

Violent Content

We see various incarnations of Baily’s doggy selves die on several occasions. Once, it’s from cancer: he winces and comments about the pain he feels, and his painful decline prompts Ethan to (mournfully) have their vet put him to sleep. In another life, Baily and a teen C.J. are in a car chase that ends with C.J.’s vehicle being purposely rear-ended by another vehicle. Their car crashes and flips, and Bailey is critically injured (though bloodlessly so).

A toddler C.J. wanders into a horse paddock and is in danger of being stomped by a rearing horse before she’s saved by Bailey and Ethan. As both a teen and an adult, C.J. is grabbed roughly by two different guys. In the earlier incident, her shirt is ripped and it appears she might be physically harmed (or perhaps sexually assaulted) before Bailey bites the guy’s leg so that C.J. can pull away and run off.

One of Bailey’s incarnations is a small dog that tends to bite peoples finger’s to keep them at bay.

Crude or Profane Language

We hear one clearly voiced “oh god” as well as another potentially unfinished usage of that profanity. Characters also exclaim “oh my gosh” a couple of times. Trent mentions that his father got angry about something and did a lot of “swearing in Mandarin.”

Drug and Alcohol Content

Gloria drinks heavily, repeatedly downing multiple glasses of chardonnay before and after leaving her 11-year-old daughter to fend for herself. We see her quite drunk in one scene and passed out in another, and it’s obvious that her relationships with her boyfriends are all alcohol related. A sleepover boyfriend fixes drinks for breakfast, for instance, etc. In fact, a teen C.J. reports that her mom is “drunk half the time.” And Gloria justifies her inebriated choices as being something that’s perfectly acceptable for an adult.

Eventually, though, Gloria assesses all that her choices have caused her to lose—including a relationship with C.J.—and she takes steps to get sober and fix her broken life.

In spite of her experience with her mom, C.J. agrees to go to a party with a boy she likes. The house is full of underage people drinking beer. The guy tries to coax her into drinking as well, but she’s not at all interested and is very uncomfortable being at the party. We also witness the sale of some kind of illicit drug at the party, a transaction that C.J.’s boyfriend is a part of. Before C.J. can leave the party, the police raid it and arrest her.

As mentioned, a veterinarian injects Bailey, who’s suffering from the growth of a tumor, with a chemical to put the animal to sleep.

Other Negative Elements

Plenty of dog-centric giggles involve backside sniffing, doggy destruction of property, dogs peeing and defecating on things.

Gloria repeatedly illustrates what a bad mom looks like: abandoning, emotionally abusing and even stealing from her daughter.

Like its predecessor, A Dog’s Purpose , this tear-jerking flick avoids nasty content as determinedly as the average mutt scorns a bath. In fact, this canine sequel is unquestionably of the same breed and straight out of the same litter as the original.

That being so, the story’s unexplained doggy reincarnation is likely the biggest issue that parents of faith will have to navigate with little viewers. Some critics have dog-tagged that pup-to-pup soul transfer as “Buddhism for beginners,” but this aspect of the film is actually handled in a pretty non-theological way: It’s simply used as a plot device to help move a somewhat nonsensical tale forward. In addition, the movie’s depiction of heaven as a dreamy golden field of grass could be a great way to talk to kids about what Christian families actually believe when it comes to the things of life, death and the afterlife.

Other than that, there’s a bit of car-crash peril, a struggle with alcoholism, an attempted assault and the sad deaths of both human and canine characters. It’s the sort of unsettling stuff that could ruffle the fur of the youngest dog lovers in your pack.

But if you can make it past those relatively minor barks and growls, you’ll find a warm story here. It not only speaks of the bonds between people and their pets, but it also takes the time to deal with very real issues of bereavement, brokenness, addiction, reconciliation and family commitment.

A Dog’s Journey is a sweet, loving and endearing pic. And it will certainly make you smile a little bigger when you get back home to your own joyous, tail-wagging buddy.

Like Bailey, we can make a strong commitment to love our family well and to help them through the ups and downs. For some ways to add a bit more bark or a little wag to your family, check out these Focus on the Family resources:

Building Family Identity

Navigating Tough Issues in Your Family, Part 1

Score One for the Family

After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.

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‘A Dog’s Journey’ review: Fantastical tale comes with emotional bite

Movie review.

Engaging critically with Dog Movies can be a challenge. Who wants to be the crank who scoffs that the heartwarming animal movie is just too contrived and sentimental? But it can be hard to avoid, with the sickly sweet pabulum of recent films such as “A Dog’s Purpose.”

Fortunately, “A Dog’s Journey,” the third in a trilogy of novels from W. Bruce Cameron, offers up an interesting, complex story into which we can sink our teeth. Directed by Emmy-winning TV director Gail Mancuso and written by “Purpose” vets Cameron, Maya Forbes, Cathryn Michon and Wallace Wolodarsky, “A Dog’s Journey” has the emotional bite to match its somewhat hokey bark.

Both “A Dog’s Purpose” and “A Dog’s Journey” are metaphysical and philosophical films that purport the theory that the same dog spirit has been reincarnated again and again into different canine forms over its owner’s lifetime, always trying to make it back home.

Bailey, the St. Bernard from “A Dog’s Purpose,” reappears as a kindly older dog in “Journey,” the beloved pet of Ethan (Dennis Quaid) and Hannah (Marg Helgenberger). Bailey bonds with the couple’s toddler granddaughter, CJ (Emma Volk), while their daughter-in-law (Betty Gilpin) grieves the death of CJ’s father in a car wreck. A selfish and vain woman, she impulsively leaves the family farm with her daughter, denying the grandparents any chance of seeing her again.

Losing a beloved dog is a part of pet ownership, and as Ethan says goodbye to his friend Bailey for the final time, he implores the dog to find and protect CJ in his next lives, because she’ll need it.

CJ grows up a lonely, sad girl (Abby Ryder Fortson and Kathryn Prescott), but Bailey finds her again and again, as a beagle named Molly, a mastiff named Big Dog and finally, a Yorkie named Max, who has the greatest influence on CJ’s life, and helps her to believe in the magic of the animal’s spirit.

It’s about halfway through the film when one realizes how much deeper Mancuso and team are going with this dog’s journey. This isn’t all romps in the tall grass and stories of puppy heroism or feats of strength — it’s about family trauma, death, domestic abuse, neglectful parenting, addiction and life-threatening illness. It’s about how dogs can fill the hole in your heart that a person might leave.

The whole shtick of these movies is the treat-motivated, not-quite-getting-it doggy voice-over, performed by Josh Gad, and it lightens the film. But going dark and emotional makes the film work better than the prior two.

★★½  “A Dog’s Journey,” with Dennis Quaid, Marg Helgenberger, Abby Ryder Fortson, Kathryn Prescott, Henry Lau, Betty Gilpin, the voice of Josh Gad. Directed by Gail Mancuso, from a screenplay by W. Bruce Cameron, Maya Forbes, Cathryn Michon and Wallace Wolodarsky, based on a novel by Cameron. 108 minutes. Rated PG for thematic content, some peril and rude humor. Opens May 17 at multiple theaters.

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'A Dog's Journey': Review

By Fionnuala Halligan, Chief Film Critic 2019-05-01T18:36:00+01:00

Beware of the dog

Source: Joe Lederer/Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment

A Dog’s Journey

Dir/scr: Gail Manusco. US. 2019. 108 mins.

All dogs certainly go to heaven in A Dog’s Journey , the follow-up to A Dog’s Purpose . After multiple heart-wrenching departures, they gambol through a golden wheat-filled field of dreams before being reincarnated as yet another version of Bailey (voiced by Josh Gad). This tale of canine devotion through the ages is so doggedly aimed at teenage girls it even has K-pop romantic lead Henry Lau to add to all the puppies.

A big, wet, sloppy lick of a film that’s going to jerk your tears, and then some.

A Dog’s Journey is certainly manipulative - humans aren’t safe here either, with a significant cancer side-plot. At times, it even seems obsessed by death. Yet there’s something oddly cathartic about sobbing your way through this film , with its mash-up of Buddhism and All-American values. (Childhood sweethearts are highly valued in this budding franchise, and Bailey is, after all, a guardian angel.) It could sit up commercially: under the solid if treacly direction of Gail Manusco Journey is better than its predecessor and, yes, the dogs are all adorable. This may be significant off-leash, long-tail counter-programming in the age of Avengers.

Adapted by W. Bruce Cameron and several collaborators from his own novel, Journey reunites the viewer with Bailey, a Pyrenees Mountain Dog, and his owners Ethan (Dennis Quaid) and Hannah (Marg Helgenberger), whose story was told in the first film (although it’s not necessary to have seen Purpose ). Their son has died in an unspecified accident, leaving behind a young widow Gloria (Betty Gilpin, excellent) and her toddler daughter CJ  in the idyllic farm Ethan has inherited. Bailey is getting old, as is Ethan. 

When Gloria, a self-obsessed frustrated singer who is overly fond of the chardonnay, takes CJ away to a life we know will be very difficult without her loving grandparents, Ethan charges the dying Bailey with seeking out the young girl and protecting her. This is – arguably, because there’s a lot to choose from – the film’s most emotional scene. Thankfully, however, it’s quickly followed by a fluffy puppy, as Bailey is sequentially reincarnated as Molly, Big Dog and Max.

They’ve all got plenty to do. Gloria is horrible to CJ – played as a child by Abby Ryder Fortson and later by Kathryn Prescott. She’s essentially abusive, leaving the child alone at night, bashing her self-confidence, and not believing when CJ is attacked by the local bad guy she briefly dates. Following on, perhaps, from Cameron’s other hit novel 8 Simple Rules About Dating My Teenage Daughter , there’s a lot in here about a young girl finding her self belief. Later on, she falls for another meanie who mocks her desire to be a singer (although, in fairness, she really isn’t that great.) The various dogs guide her back into the ambit of her childhood best friend, but more tragedy may be on its way.

Thank goodness for Gad’s voiceover, as Bailey cheerfully sniffs butts and waits for the bacon to drop. Sure, A Dog’s Journey is heavy-handed. Colours are only ever primary, the sun is always shining – unless a dog is dying – the music is drippily instructive, and every character is broad-brush, starting with the Chinese schoolboy whose parents make him study too much all the way through to boozehound single mum Gloria. Still, though. This is hardly one for the cynics. It’s a big, wet, sloppy lick of a film that’s going to jerk your tears, and then some. Beware of the dog. 

Production companies: Amblin Entertainment, Reliance Entertainment, Pariah

International distribution: Universal

Producer: Gavin Polone

Screenplay: W. Bruce Cameron, Catheryn Michon, Maya Forbes, Wally Wolodarsky, based on the novel by W. Bruce Cameron

Cinematography: Roger Stoffers

Production design: Eric Fraser

Editing: Robert Komatsu

Music: Mark Isham

Main cast: Kathryn Prescott, Abby Ryder Fortson, Emma Volk, Josh Gad, Betty Gilpin, Marg Helgenberger, Henry Lau, Dennis Quaid, Ian Chen, Jack Manley, Daniela Barbosa, Conrad Coates

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Review: ‘A Dog’s Journey’ goes deeper than its pedigree to offer unconditional love

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Engaging critically with Dog Movies can be a challenge for a critic. Who wants to be the crank who scoffs that the heartwarming animal movie is just too contrived and sentimental? But it can be hard to avoid, with the sickly sweet, pandering pabulum of “A Dog’s Purpose” and “A Dog’s Way Home.” Fortunately, “A Dog’s Journey,” the third in a trio of films adapted from W. Bruce Cameron’s novels, offers up an interesting, complex story into which we can sink our teeth. Directed by Emmy-winner Gail Mancuso (“Modern Family”), written by “Purpose” vets Cameron, Maya Forbes, Cathryn Michon and Wallace Wolodarsky, “A Dog’s Journey” has the emotional bite to match its somewhat hokey bark.

Both “A Dog’s Purpose” and “A Dog’s Journey” are metaphysical films that purport that the same dog spirit has been reincarnated again and again into different canine forms over its owner’s lifetime, always trying to make it back home. It’s a rather fantastically philosophical idea for a film that traffics in nostalgic heartland family values cheerleading. But it’s a fantasy dog lovers want to believe. Just look at Barbra Streisand, who has cloned her beloved dog — wouldn’t it be nice to think all dogs don’t actually go to heaven but get reincarnated into our next furry friends?

Bailey, the Saint Bernard from “A Dog’s Purpose,” reappears as a kindly older dog in “Journey,” the beloved pet of Ethan (Dennis Quaid) and Hannah (Marg Helgenberger). Bailey bonds with Ethan and Hannah’s toddler granddaughter, CJ (Emma Volk), while their daughter-in-law Gloria (Betty Gilpin) grieves the death of CJ’s father in a car wreck. A selfish and vain woman, she impulsively leaves the family farm with her daughter, denying the grandparents any chance of seeing her again while tossing off vague accusations about CJ’s father’s life insurance policy.

Losing a beloved dog is a part of pet ownership, and as Ethan says goodbye to his friend Bailey for the final time, he implores the dog to find and protect CJ in his next lives, because she’ll need it. CJ grows up a sad, lonely girl (Abby Ryder Fortson and, later, Kathryn Prescott), but Bailey finds her again and again, as a beagle named Molly, a mastiff named Big Dog and, finally, a Yorkie named Max, who has the greatest influence on CJ’s life, and helps her to believe in the magic of the animal’s spirit.

It’s about halfway through the film when one realizes how much deeper Mancuso and team are going with this dog’s journey. This isn’t all romps in the tall grass and stories of puppy heroism or feats of strength — it’s about family trauma, death, domestic abuse, neglectful parenting, addiction and life-threatening illness. It’s about how dogs can fill the hole in your heart that a person might leave.

The whole schtick of these movies is the treat-motivated, not-quite-getting-it doggie voice-over, performed by Josh Gad , and it lightens the film. But going dark and emotional makes the film work better than the prior two. Because even among all the coincidences and twists of fate Molly and Max enact, what hits home the most is that dogs can offer people unconditional love when they need it most, and that has always been a dog’s purpose.

Katie Walsh is a Tribune News Service film critic.

-------------

‘A Dog’s Journey’

Rated: PG for thematic content, some peril and rude humor

Running time: 1 hour, 48 minutes

Playing: Starts May 17 in general release

------------

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Summary A dog finds the meaning of his own existence through the lives of the humans he meets.

Directed By : Gail Mancuso

Written By : W. Bruce Cameron, Cathryn Michon, Maya Forbes, Wallace Wolodarsky

A Dog's Journey

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Movie Review – A Dog’s Journey (2019)

May 15, 2019 by Robert Kojder

A Dog’s Journey , 2019.

Directed by Gail Mancuso. Starring Dennis Quaid, Betty Gilpin, Josh Gad, Abby Ryder Fortson, Marg Helgenberger, Kathryn Prescott, Ian Chen, Daniela Barbosa, Jake Manley, and Henry Lau.

A dog finds the meaning of his own existence through the lives of the humans he meets.

Two things become clear while watching A Dog’s Journey (to be fair, both revelations can be had during the film’s predecessor as well, A Dog’s Purpose ); for how spirited and playful and joyful Josh Gad is doing the voiceover work for the reincarnated canine soul, the films would most likely function better emotionally without such an overbearing presence in favor of a degree of subtlety. The second is that the book source material from W. Bruce Cameron is much more adult-oriented, meaning that these family-friendly adaptations are stripping down the heart of the stories in order for Hollywood to manufacture something palatable for all audiences. It doesn’t work, as in both movies there’s always heavier and sometimes dark events around the corner, more so this time around, but they’re not given the freedom they need to land at any weight.

Gail Mancuso is now in the director’s chair taking over for Lasse Hallstrom (using a script from numerous names including W. Bruce Cameron himself once again) which, in theory, is a wise decision considering A Dog’s Journey centers on a young woman, but the story doesn’t try to get in her head or examine her abusive upbringing in any meaningful way. Instead, she chooses to date some terribly controlling men while somehow not catching the signal that her childhood best friend is really into her. When your dog is criticizing your dating life, you’ve got problems.

Keeping bad guys at bay is part of Bailey’s purpose, tasked with protecting young Calamity Jane, or CJ for short, by Dennis Quaid’s now grandfather Ethan (returning to the series where he left off, older and frail) as she needs his companionship and spiritual guidance more than him. Unfortunately, his daughter Gloria (Betty Gilpin) is in a confused state of emotions regarding the tragic death of her husband, which sort of causes a downward spiral leading her to abandon her parents assuming that they are against her when all they really want her to do is tone down the drinking and take responsibility as a parent. Meanwhile, Bailey himself is on death’s door, so it’s clear that once he is reborn into the body of another dog, finding and caring for CJ in Chicago will become his lifelong fulfilling quest.

is a much different experience from the first entry right down to its structure. Rather than having the dog search multiple lifetimes to meet up with his destined owner, he is reborn as Molly and is coincidently adopted by CJ as a child (without her drunken mother’s permission, of course). It’s actually jarring and instantly makes one wonder if the film is going to go for a twist where the dog cares for the wrong person, at least until you start hearing the aligning names of the characters.

Regardless, this childhood portion (in which CJ is played by Ant-Man ‘s Abby Ryder Fortson) is easily the strongest section from an emotional standpoint, most notably in a sequence where her mother is out all night drinking with one of her many awful boyfriends over the years, leaving the 11-year-old child at home crying during a scary thunderstorm, which slowly becomes less terrifying with the canine by her side. Soon after, there is a scene of her playing guitar next to the dog, and it’s the closest these movies have ever come to contained affecting drama that does not need manipulation to bring out the feels. It’s fair to even go as far as saying the seriousness of the story works here despite the PG rating.

Through no fault of Kathryn Prescott, the larger portion showing CJ as a teenager up to her young adult years simply doesn’t work, mainly because the writing becomes so episodic and fast-moving that it’s hard to care about anything, whether it’s stalker boyfriends causing car accidents or important characters learning they have cancer. To give you an idea of how crippling some of this really is, the cancer subplot is resolved in 10 minutes, complete with the character’s hair grown back in what seems like a week following winning the battle. The movie is more interested in going through the motions as family-friendly as it can rather than functioning as something of substance.

Kids will laugh at the broad doggie humor, adults will most likely find themselves crying during the closing heartstring-tugging moments (it goes for that so hard, that you kind of have no choice but to surrender some kind of sadness), everyone will be united thinking that CJ needs to stop messing around with every dopey guy on the block (it’s truly perplexing that she seems to only go for guys that either want to stifle her musical ambitions or mistreat her) and get with her best friend Trent (Korean pop star Henry Lau as the lovable nice guy that also enjoys the company of dogs), and Hollywood will approve another installment in this series. Although if I had to choose between the two so far, at least A Dog’s Journey might prove to be empowering to young girls in various ways. Either way, these books probably deserve better.

Flickering Myth Rating  – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★

Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check  here  for new reviews, friend me on Facebook, follow my  Twitter  or  Letterboxd , check out my personal non-Flickering Myth affiliated  Patreon , or email me at [email protected]

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A Dog's Journey

The year’s most cloying and predictable movie dishes the dirt on dogs, dating and death.

Shaggy tales: Kathryn Prescott

It helps if you believe in reincarnation. The first film, A Dog’s Purpose , based on W. Bruce Cameron’s novel, followed the adventures of a canine soul called Bailey as he hopped in and out of the bodies of various dogs. So, just as the viewer was beginning to warm to a particular scenario, the pooch popped his clogs again. The unexpected sequel – OK, the first film grossed over $200m – is actually a smarter animal. While ‘Bailey’ (voiced by Josh Gad) enjoys his life on the farm with the dog-loving Ethan and Hannah Montgomery (Dennis Quaid, Marg Helgenberger) he makes a promise to himself. Whatever form he takes, he will always look after the couple’s granddaughter, C.J., to whom he’s taken a particular liking. But Bailey, switching breeds, sizes and genders before our very eyes, finds it hard to keep up with his human companions, even though he is conveniently re-incarnated in the same area of the USA – and is blessed with a series of mind-boggling coincidences. Here, then, we follow not only Bailey – and Molly, Max and Toby – but C.J, too, as she grows into an adult singer-songwriter played by Kathryn Prescott. Thus, in spite of the film’s episodic nature, we do have a through-line in which Bailey and C.J. miraculously intersect. As family entertainment geared towards the dog friendly, the film is sweet and innocuous enough, if brazenly ludicrous. And while Mark Isham’s orchestra works overtime to squeeze out every accessible teardrop, the actors handle their scenes with some confidence. But A Dog’s Journey is not all sweetness and light, as estrangement, alcoholism, cancer and car crashes all get a look-in. It certainly doesn’t soft-pedal the harsher aspects of life, although the over-all tone is upbeat and good-natured. After all, whatever happens in this life, the next could prove a good deal rosier. And even though the viewer may suspect the inevitable outcome, the conclusion still proves surprisingly affecting. JAMES CAMERON-WILSON Cast : Marg Helgenberger, Betty Gilpin, Henry Lau, Kathryn Prescott, Dennis Quaid, Josh Gad (as narrator), Emma Volk, Abby Ryder Fortson, Ian Chen, Jake Manley, Daniela Barbosa.

Dir Gail Mancuso, Pro Gavin Polone, Screenplay W. Bruce Cameron, Cathryn Michon, Maya Forbes and Wally Wolodarsky, Ph Rogier Stoffers, Pro Des Eric Fraser, Ed Robert Komatsu, Music Mark Isham, Costumes Patricia J. Henderson.

Amblin Entertainment/Reliance Entertainment/Walden Media/Alibaba Pictures-Entertainment One. 108 mins. USA/India. 2019. Rel: 3 May 2019. Cert. PG.

A Dog's Purpose

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Movie review: ‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’ a reflective journey

Long ago, a man-made virus granted apes superior intelligence and the ability to speak, while taking those same abilities from humans. Dynamics shifted over time and through war, with apes taking over the planet as the dominant species, and humans living like fearful animals in the shadows.

The last time we were in this world was in the 2017 “War for the Planet of the Apes,” in which Andy Serkis’ Caesar died a hero to the apes.

Director Wes Ball, known for the “The Maze Runner” trilogy, brings us back to the chaos in a story that picks up “many generations” after Caesar’s death, where a young ape named Noa (Owen Teague) seeks retribution on the band of vicious apes who burned his village to the ground, killing or kidnapping everyone he knows.

Following their trail, he realizes he is also being followed — by a human. The big surprise here is that the human is not what she seems. Her name, he learns, is Mae (Freya Allan), and he is shocked to learn she never lost her ability to speak. More importantly, there are others like her.

I enjoyed the world building along their journey — scenery like the vacated cascades of man-made city highrises from centuries ago, overgrown with lush greenery over time, to the arguably devolved, primal towers of sticks that Noa called home. But I felt myself dozing more than once from the pace in the first half.

Things picked up in the second half, when Noa and Mae were captured and taken to the ape kingdom being built by the ruthless Proximus (Kevin Durand).

Within that coastal kingdom, the suspense built steadily through tremendous writing and acting that wasn’t limited by the movie magic that turns actors into apes. There were no dead, soulless eyes that often accompany these sorts of nonhuman depictions in films; rather, living, feeling subtleties in every facial expression.

It was in this second act that Noa and Mae had a conversation about the world they inhabited, posing the question: should the world belong to the humans or the apes? And when they couldn’t come to an agreement, it hit me just how much this debate mirrors conflicts in our world throughout history.

Even today, I thought about the dialogue surrounding Israel-Palestine and the arguments from each side. And how, so long as there is no agreement, the war will rage on.

“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” feels more reflective than you’d expect it to. Even with talking apes waddling around the screen, it offers a realistic story, in a fantastical world.

Scott McDaniel is an assistant professor of journalism at Franklin College. He lives in Bargersville with his wife and three kids.

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Valerie Complex

Associate Editor/Film Writer

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The story centers on Eden (Glazer) and Dawn ( Michelle Buteau ), childhood best friends whose lives have diverged yet remain intertwined through their shared experiences of womanhood and growing up in NYC. Dawn, a meticulous dentist and a married mother living with two kids and her husband Marty (Hasan Minhaj) contrasts sharply with Eden, a carefree, single woman who runs a yoga studio out of her Brooklyn condo. The two wealthy girlies who have nothing in common but somehow get along after all these years.

The film’s plot is set into motion on Thanksgiving when Dawn’s water breaks during a movie outing. Inexplicably, rather than rushing to the hospital, the duo opts for lunch, (setting a precedent for the film’s often bewildering choices). When Dawn eventually gives birth, the portrayal of motherhood begins to unfold in earnest. This is juxtaposed by Eden’s spontaneous one-night stand with Claude (Stephen James). She’s not worried about an unexpected pregnancy. She doesn’t even think pregnancy is possible because she’s on her period. This lapse in judgement throws Eden’s and Dawn’s world upside down as a notoriously independent and single woman has to learn to be a mom.

Glazer and Buteau deliver performances that resonate, however, when they are together on screen, the experience can be grating as banter turns into rambling and inside jokes the audience isn’t in on. The film shines brightest in its quieter moments, particularly when Eden and Dawn aren’t interacting because that’s when the viewer sees the broader societal expectations placed on women, the isolation of motherhood, and the challenge of maintaining one’s identity amidst a major life change. As the film progresses, Eden and Dawn’s relationship strains under the pressures of their evolving roles as mothers, a potentially rich vein of drama that is only superficially mined. The narrative hints at deeper changes in their dynamic, but these developments are either resolved too quickly or not explored with the nuance they deserve.

Babes is a film of contradictions. It presents a series of vignettes on motherhood and female friendship that are at times touching and hilarious but often feel disjointed and unrealistic. The film’s pacing and tone fluctuate widely, and at nearly two hours, it feels both overstuffed and superficial. It does showcase moments of genuine emotion and humor, but it fails to deliver a cohesive or satisfying exploration of its central themes. It is a film that, much like its protagonists, seems still in search of its own identity, caught between the demands of genre expectations and the desire to say something true about the lived experiences of women today.

Title:  Babes Distributor:  Neon Release date:  May 17, 2024 Director : Pamela Adlon Screenwriter:  Ilana Glazer and Josh Rabinowitz Cast:  Ilana Glazer, Michelle Buteau, Hasan Minhaj, John Carroll Lynch, Oliver Platt, Sandra Bernhard, and Elena Ouspenskaia Rating:  R Running time:  1 hr 49 min

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'The Second Act' Review: Paul Thomas Anderson Would Never | Cannes 2024

The cast are great and the ideas all there, though this attempt at a satire never comes together.

The Big Picture

• The Second Act falls short of its potential, lacking the sharpness and depth of more impactful satires.
• All the jokes are stretched painfully thin and the film fails to delve into any of the ideas it throws out effectively.
• The Second Act ultimately lacks teeth as it remains content to only lightly skewer rather than fully tear apart its subjects.

Considering the number of times that Paul Thomas Anderson is used as a punchline in The Second Act , the latest feature from writer-director Quentin Dupieux , it shouldn’t be entirely surprising that the mind begins to wander to great films like Boogie Nights and The Master . Oh, how one wishes they’d been watching those movies instead of this one. This isn’t because The Second Act is without any redeeming qualities or that it should have to measure up to the work of someone whose mention is premised on that he is a cut above just about anyone else. The greater problem is that it’s too uncertain about how to capitalize on what it has going for it. From a talented cast in Léa Seydoux , Louis Garrel , Vincent Lindon , and Raphaël Quenard to an initial willingness to be ruthless in tearing apart the messy art of moviemaking, it could have been something truly great . Perhaps not PTA great, but great nonetheless.

The Second Act (2024)

Florence wants to introduce David, the man she’s madly in love with, to her father Guillaume. But David isn’t attracted to Florence and wants to throw her into the arms of his friend Willy. The four characters meet in a restaurant in the middle of nowhere.

Instead, just when you think this movie about making movies is starting to get somewhere interesting, it reveals itself to be only a sporadically funny satire with a surprising lack of teeth. In a year that’s already seen the release of the biting and incisive Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World , this seems downright tepid by comparison. It isn’t that The Second Act is hindered by its rather broad character archetypes, as they all exist to be vehicles for the gags about the process and ego involved in making movies, as much as it is the way that the rest of the experience plays out. For all the times it calls attention to its own artifice, that doesn’t stop it from feeling quite artificial in its own right. Every joke becomes stretched to a breaking point with the self-proclaimed bad movie these characters are making coming to dominate the experience, leaving the already scattered laughter to fade away.

What is 'The Second Act' About?

We first meet characters David (Garrel) and Willy (Quenard) walking along in the woods in an unbroken shot. When the latter begins spewing some hateful ideas about trans people, the former warns him to be careful with his words as people are watching. Yes, the camera itself is acknowledged right out of the gate , and it becomes clear that this is a production about a production. Elsewhere, a similar shot plays out with Florence (Seydoux) and Guillaume (Lindon) carrying out another self-aware conversation that exists to set the stage.

However, rather than feeling like the fourth wall is being truly broken in any meaningful way, it is part of Dupieux just persistently poking at it. Some of this can be somewhat goofy fun, with Seydoux proving to be a real riot in small asides, but the majority of it is rather superficial. When all four actors convene in a remote restaurant, a locale that is practically bursting with potential , they just carry out what they all know to be a generic film. At least, that is what it is initially, as Dupieux proves that he still has one trick up his sleeve . Had he deployed it sooner and with more dexterity, there could have been something more to wrestle with here.

Instead, this is a film that only gestures towards complicated ideas surrounding everything from artificial intelligence to what happens when we put on a performance that is not ourselves. Where such ideas were given brilliant life in the astounding recent The Beast , which also starred Seydoux, everything just feels largely dead here. That this is part of the prolonged farce at play here is fair enough, but perhaps there should be something more to chew on once you’ve repeatedly made the same series of jokes inside this premise.

The Second Act' Is Only a Half-Hearted Swing

Make your characters truly distasteful and not just abstractions of them. Let’s go for broke in getting into the way that people can become so wrapped up in themselves and what they’re making that they lose sight of the craft along the way. Oh, we’re just going to do the spilling wine bit again? Sure, this ends up being more revealing than it would seem on the surface, but it takes nearly the entire runtime to even start to scrape away at this . Instead, the film is mostly bemusing as the actors, while not playing themselves per se, can have some fun with the knowing winks they give to us. What becomes less engaging is how that seems to be almost all there is, even pulling the rug out from under for us to freefall into nothing.

The aforementioned A.I., a true scourge on all things creative and human, is lightly skewered along with those who would intend to use it to steadily replace the pesky people with the talent and dedication to make art. Perhaps this itself will be enough for those looking for a chuckle, but it almost makes the whole thing into something benign. This is not just painfully easy to fall into, but it ends up being a comedic dodge that nearly undoes the whole thing. Where other filmmakers have managed to find a balance between capturing the comedic banality of our modern dystopia and the broken system that underpins it , The Second Act just dips a toe in before leaping out into safer waters that it can just be silly in . Such absurdity occasionally provides the occasional jolt to the film, but it isn’t enough to keep the motor running. When it finally pulls into its last stop, a closing attempt at a shot across the bow can’t stop it all from stalling out.

The Second Act is a film with plenty of ideas and a great cast, though it only ever skims the surface.

• The cast gets as much as they can out of their characters and the winks they make to the audience.
• Many of the jokes are overstretched to the point that they nearly break apart.
• Though never lacking for pressing questions and ideas, The Second Act is never able to go into true depth on any.
• While the film does have a final trick up its sleeve, it's deployed too late and with not enough dexterity to the land.

The Second Act had its World Premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.

'If' movie review: Ryan Reynolds' imaginary friend fantasy might go over your kids' heads

Even with likable youngsters, a vast array of cartoonish characters, various pratfalls and shenanigans, and Ryan Reynolds in non- Deadpool mode, the family comedy “IF” isn’t really a "kids movie" – at least not in a conventional sense.

There’s a refreshing whiff of whimsy and playful originality to writer/director John Krasinski’s big-hearted fantasy (★★½ out of four; rated PG; in theaters Friday), which centers on a young girl who discovers a secret world of imaginary friends (aka IFs). What it can’t find is the common thread of universal appeal. Yeah, children are geared to like any movie with a cheery unicorn, superhero dog, flaming marshmallow with melting eye and assorted furry monsters. But “IF” features heady themes of parental loss and reconnecting with one’s youth, plus boasts a showstopping dance set to Tina Turner, and that all leans fairly adult. Mash those together and the result is akin to a live-action Pixar movie without the nuanced execution.

Twelve-year-old Bea (Cailey Fleming) doesn’t really think of herself as a kid anymore. Her mom died of a terminal illness and now her dad (Krasinski) is going into the hospital for surgery to fix his “broken heart,” so she’s staying with her grandma (Fiona Shaw) in New York City.

When poking around her new environment, Bea learns she has the ability to see imaginary friends. And she’s not the only one: Bea meets charmingly crusty upstairs neighbor Cal (Reynolds) as well as his IF pals, like spritely Blossom (voiced by Phoebe Waller-Bridge) and overly sensitive purple furry monster named Blue (Steve Carell). They run a sort of matchmaking agency to connect forgotten IFs whose kids have outgrown them with new children in need of their companionship, and Bea volunteers to help out.

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Bea is introduced to an IF retirement community located under a Coney Island carousel with a bevy of oddball personalities in the very kid-friendly middle section of the movie. “IF” low-key has the most starry supporting cast of any movie this summer because of all the A-listers voicing imaginary friends, an impressive list that includes Emily Blunt and Sam Rockwell as the aforementioned unicorn and superdog, Matt Damon as a helpful sunflower, George Clooney as a spaceman, Amy Schumer as a gummy bear and Bradley Cooper as an ice cube in a glass. (It's no talking raccoon, but it works.)

One of the movie's most poignant roles is a wise bear played by Louis Gossett Jr. in one of his final roles. Rather than just being a cameo, he’s nicely central to a key emotional scene.

While the best family flicks win over kids of all ages, “IF” is a film for grown-ups in PG dressing. The movie is amusing but safe in its humor, the overt earnestness overshadows some great bits of subversive silliness, and the thoughtful larger narrative, which reveals itself by the end to be much more than a story about a girl befriending a bunch of make-believe misfits, will go over some little ones’ heads. Tweens and teens, though, will likely engage with or feel seen by Bea’s character arc, struggling to move into a new phase of life while being tied to her younger years – not to mention worrying about her dad, who tries to make light of his medical situation for Bea.

Reynolds does his part enchanting all ages in this tale of two movies: He’s always got that irascible “fun uncle” vibe for kids, and he strikes a fun chemistry opposite Fleming that belies the serious stuff “IF” digs into frequently. But unless your child is into old movies, they probably won’t get why “Harvey” is playing in the background in a scene. And when “IF” reaches its cathartic finale, some kiddos might be wondering why their parents are sniffling and tearing up – if they're still paying attention and not off playing with their own imaginary friend by then.

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The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time. The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time. The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time.

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• 81 User reviews
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How Marisa Abela Channeled Amy Winehouse

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Did you know

• Trivia Marisa Abela had done most of the singing in this film herself. She trained extensively to mimic Amy Winehouse 's vocals.

Technical specs

• Runtime 2 hours 2 minutes

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