大象传媒

Indie scribe Mike White (The Good Girl) calls the shots on Year Of The Dog, a literal shaggy dog story that stars Molly Shannon as bleeding-heart animal lover Peggy. Her grief at losing her pet pooch sparks a pattern of destructive behaviour, and she's not alone. White also appears to have lost his grip, taking wild stabs at comedy and tragedy and ending up with something that's fractured and fluffy, and definitely not as cute as it thinks it is.

In the wake of little Pencil's death, Peggy's best friend Layla (Regina King) insists she find herself a man. Peggy's bumbling neighbour Al (John C Reilly) is the first prospective boyfriend to come along, but during an awkward first date she begins to suspect that his careless way with rat poison may have resulted in Pencil's death. Anger wells up and with few other ways to let off steam, Peggy throws herself into animal activism, adopting a menagerie of animals and forcing her impressionable young niece to see where cheap chicken nuggets come from.

"STALE AS TWO-DAY-OLD DOG BREATH"

Opting for full-frontal portrait shots and deadpan gags, White is obviously taking cues from Jared Hess (who directed his script for Nacho Libre). Unfortunately his stagey approach means even the best actors, like Shannon and Laura Dern (playing her soppy sister-in-law), come across as affected. The gulf widens because there isn't a single, solid relationship to cling to. Peggy's mad passion for mutts fires in all directions and the humans she interacts with are barking as well! (King is especially grating as her loudmouthed pal.) Reilly offers some comedy relief, but otherwise the jokes are as stale as two-day-old dog breath. Frankly, even Barbara Woodhouse couldn't whip this one into shape.

Year Of The Dog is out in the UK on 31st August 2007.