There’s a scene in A Dog’s Purpose when even the most insouciant, up-for-anything, down-for-everything viewer—the kind of person who smokes a cigarette in a kindergarten classroom because he’s French—can no longer deny that the film has truly gone off the rails; that from this point on, trying to predict the PG-rated plot will be trickier than guessing the path of a blindfolded rhinoceros pumped full of amphetamines and airdropped into a corn maze (at considerable expense); that if God can create it, Satan can destroy it, and possibly will, at some point within the two hour runtime of A Dog’s Purpose.
It’s a scene where a puppy is murdered.
It’s the first scene of the movie.
A Dog’s Purpose has been the subject of a robust ad campaign in recent weeks. Life-sized posters of Godzilla-sized dogs blanketed an entire city block in New York’s Times Square. Their inexplicably plaintive eyes begged passers-by to consider the film’s tagline: “Every dog happens for a reason.”
On Twitter, everyone was dead, drowned in a tsunami of tears prompted by a commercial for the film, in which a dog grows old:
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The picture was projected to earn $20 million its opening weekend—not bad for a movie that gives away its entire plot (a dog is born, dies, is reborn as another dog, dies, is reborn as another dog, tries to figure out a dog's purpose, dies, etc.) in the trailer. Its path to success seemed like the hindquarters of a healthy young American Staffordshire Terrier without hip dysplasia.
(Straight and true.)
Danny Beattie Photography
Until TMZ published a video that appeared to show one of the film's many dog-actors being forced into churning water, and, in another clip, becoming submerged. PETA called for a boycott. Human-actor Josh Gad (who voices the movie's continuously destroyed main character) distanced himself from the project on Twitter. ("While I do not know all of the details and cannot speak to the level of care and caution that went into this moment (as I was never on set for the making of this film), I am shaken and sad to see any animal put in a situation against its will.") The film's director, Lasse Hallström, did likewise ("To all who saw the upsetting clip from the making of a dog's purpose: I DID NOT SEE WHAT HAPPENED BEFORE CAMERAS ROLLED!") An investigation into the 2015 incident was announced. The film's red carpet premiere was canceled.
This past Monday, Gavin Polone, the film's producer and a long-time animal rights advocate, attempted to mitigate the damage. In an op-ed for the Hollywood Reporter, he both decried the instances shown in the clips, and argued that they did not provide an accurate picture of the dog's treatment on set. (Polone blamed the dog's visible agitation on the fact that its rehearsed point of entry into the water was temporarily changed the day of filming, adding that, once the crew reverted to the original set-up, the animal entered the water "on his own." He maintains that a diver, two trainers, a stunt coordinator, and a safety officer were on hand to protect the dog from danger.)
Hercules, the German shepherd depicted in the footage, is reportedly alive and well. Many vocal online commenters are still threatening to boycott the film. Others have taken to social media in support of Polone's statements. I viewed A Dog's Purpose at an advance screening a few weeks ago, back when deciding to see it would make people question your taste, but probably not your morals. One thing I can tell you, if you do decide to see it: This movie will f*ck you up.
There was a gaggle of preteen girls at the midday showing I attended—the children of film executives, perhaps, or else just very Young Professional Film Critics in the mold of Young Pope. Before the film began, they were giggly and giddy, bouncing in their seats with the electricity generated by an unexpected afternoon off school.
Believe me when I say: A few minutes later, these girls would have given anything to be in Spanish class.
They didn't actually seem too fazed by the puppy death I mentioned up top. It's the sort of thing that might be too subtle for most kids to catch: the little guy is born, almost immediately picked up by a dog catcher, placed in the back of his killing wagon and then the screen fades to a kaleidoscope of soft pastels. He's dead and back even while you're still settling into your seat. The second time he's born, it's as a puppy named Bailey. His owner is a boy named Ethan.
