Rent Dog (2022)

Dog review by Mark McPherson - Cinema Paradiso

Dog is one of those films that walks a fine line with the military drama it wishes to weave. Somewhere between chest-beating machismo and sentimental schmaltz, it’s an off-beat adventure of a soldier and his dog, both of them misfits entrusted with making it to a funeral for a fallen serviceman. Yet it’s also in this weird anti-Goldilocks zone; too adult with its sex and booze to be a family film and too absurdly sentimental and childishly staged to be an adult film. Normally I don’t try to speak ill of films pitched outside my demographic but I’m having a tough time trying to figure out just who this demographic is for. Turner and Hooch fans, maybe?

Channing Tatum plays Army Ranger Briggs, a down-on-his-luck soldier trying to get back on a mission and avoid a life of minimum wage fast-food labor. With no other options, his only chance to be taken seriously again is to escort the service dog Lulu to the funeral for her master. The journey won’t be easy considering that Briggs finds it hard to connect with others and Lulu is a real troublemaker. Of course, they’ll better bond on this journey and Briggs will realize that caring for a dog was the real battlefield all along.

There are plenty of absurd and melodramatic asides in this adventure. Briggs will possibly get into a threesome but have that sex denied when his dog acts up in the car and attracts attention. In a questionable act, Briggs will pretend to be blind with Lulu being his assistant dog, all so he can land a fancy hotel on his trip. It seems slimy but considering how poorly some veterans are treated, it’s a wee bit understandable. Less understandable, however, is when Lulu attacks a hotel guest dressed in Middle Eastern clothing, committing to his racial profiling. Even worse is the uncomfortable conversation that Briggs later has with a feuding cop (Bill Burr) arguing over towel-heads and ranks.

The whole film is filled with these moments, trying to appeal to the conservative mindset of the world but in bits and pieces that never fully commit to anything substantial or contemplative. Consider the sequence where Briggs tries and fails to pick up women in the bar. Most of the women bring up aspects of how they hate the military-industrial complex and toxic masculinity. These conversations are treated less like topics and more like red flags. At least Briggs is smart enough to avoid these conversations before spiraling into some Mark Wahlberg-style rant about PC culture. Wisely, the film doesn’t offer much commentary on the scene where a homeless man poses as a military veteran, but one can’t help but feel that if it did expand on this aspect, it would not look good.

The best parts of the film are unsurprisingly the sentimental moments. The comradery between Briggs and Lulu does build decently enough throughout the film that you start to feel a bit for them. It’s hokey to feature a climax where Lulu lays down like a good boy at the foot of his dead master’s grave, but enough of the simpler moments build up to this moment decently. There are also some health issues with Briggs that make him more sympathetic, as well as how he relates to other military men.

Dog is a bit of a tough call as a bland dose of military dog drama. It has a fair amount of quietly reflective moments, but just as many uncomfortable riding-the-line moments of off-putting hijinks. Honestly, it was more intense watching this film to see how far before Tatum goes off the rails than whether or not he gets that dog to the funeral. We know that dog is getting to that funeral and we know he’s going to end up caring for that dog as his new friendship. Spoilers, I guess.