DOG (12A)
For the past five years, Channing Tatum has traded leading man duties on the big screen for supporting roles and cameos while he amicably separated from wife Jenna Dewan, launched the Magic Mike Live stage show and published his first children’s book, The One And Only Sparkella, dedicated to his young daughter Everly.
His comeback was supposed to be a Gambit spin-off film in the X-Men universe, which he had been developing for years with long-time producing partner Reid Carolin.
Unfortunately, Disney’s high-profile acquisition of 20th Century Fox snuffed out that pipe dream.
Instead, the hiatus ends with Dog, a mismatched buddy drama-comedy, which marks Tatum’s directorial debut with Carolin, who co-wrote the screenplay with Brett Rodriguez.
It is a curious shaggy dog story that addresses the heavy price of patriotism for American service personnel on two and four legs, punctuated by gently humorous interludes including a close encounter with a psychic couple (Jane Adams, Kevin Nash) and a ham-fisted attempt to pose as a blind war veteran and his support animal.
Tone and pacing can jar. One minute, Tatum is playfully soaping his companion in a bathtub, the next he is twitching helplessly on the floor from a traumatic brain injury (TBI) sustained in the line of duty.
In slang terms, a dog is an unmitigated disaster or something of little value.
Tatum and Reid’s Dog certainly isn’t that mangy, a predictable, crowd-pleasing narrative arc almost leaves a lump in the throat, but it won’t be winning any best in show rosettes.
Former US Army Ranger Briggs (Tatum) proudly served in the 75th Ranger Regiment out of Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma, Washington until a TBI permanently side-lined him from active service.
Separated from his three-year-old daughter Sam and her mother (Q’orianka Kilcher), Briggs suffers occasional blurred vision and seizures in addition to the invisible psychological wounds from tours of duty in the Middle East.
Miraculously, he is granted a medical certificate for a position as a private security guard but his application demands a personal recommendation from a commanding officer. Briggs’ superior, Jones, agrees to support the application if the veteran successfully escorts a Belgian Malinois military working dog named Lulu to Nogales, Arizona to attend the funeral of her handler, Sergeant Riley Rodriguez (Eric Urbiztondo).
“You stick your neck out for the battalion, I stick my neck out for you,” barks Jones.
A race against the clock down the Pacific Coast in a 1984 Ford Bronco pits Briggs against Lulu, who is just as traumatised by her experiences behind enemy lines and is muzzled for everyone’s protection.
Dog collars the sympathetic double-act of Tatum and his four-legged co-star, who trade snarls and glares until mutual animosity inevitably softens.
Whenever the script goes off leash for a fanciful diversion, running time drags: a flirtation with two tantra mistresses is superfluous.
6/10
THE REAL CHARLIE CHAPLIN (12A)
For many years, Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr – better known as Charlie Chaplin – was one of the most recognisable faces in the world, appearing in numerous films of the silent era including The Kid, The Gold Rush, The Circus, City Lights and Modern Times.
He reluctantly embraced sound in his celebrated 1940 picture The Great Dictator, which satirised Adolf Hitler.
Chaplin’s meteoric rise from the slums of Victorian London to the dizzy heights of Hollywood superstardom led to a fall from grace involving his relationship with actress Joan Barry and a smear campaign designed to cast aspersions on his political leanings at a time when stars faced career-ending investigations from the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).
Directors Peter Middleton and James Spinney enrich newly discovered audio recordings and intimate home movies with dramatic reconstructions to explore different facets of Chaplin on and off the big screen. Their documentary lifts a veil of secrecy that has shrouded Chaplin’s private life and explores the complex man behind the ebullient stage persona.
7/10
HERE BEFORE (15)
An emotionally scarred mother becomes convinced that her dead daughter lives in another child in a psychological thriller set in Northern Ireland, written and directed by Stacey Gregg.
Several years after the death of her beloved Josie (Grace O’Dwyer), Laura (Andrea Riseborough) has rebuilt her life in a suburb of Belfast with her husband Brendan (Jonjo O’Neill) and son Tadhg.
The arrival of new neighbours – Chris, Marie and their 10-year-old daughter Megan – unsettles Laura and gradually sends the mother into a tailspin.
Megan possesses knowledge of the local area from before she arrived and begins to wear a ribbon in her hair identical to the accessory that Josie loved. The 10-year-old even draws a picture of herself with Laura’s family and clearly labels Tadhg as her brother.
An increasingly discombobulated Laura suspects a supernatural connection between the two girls but her fascination with Megan is a cause of rapidly mounting concern for Chris and Marie.
6/10
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