Just perfect...

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Screenwriter and actor Mike White gives 'Saturday Night Live' alumni Molly Shannon an impressive starring showcase in this creditable filmmaking effort. Molly shines as Peggy, a secretary who gets along better with animals than she does with people. Her whole world is devastated when her beloved pet beagle Pencil is poisoned. Circumstances for her get more and more ridiculous as she begins to embrace veganism and animal rights activism, to the detriment of what few relationships she has with people.While it is understandable that we can lose some rooting interest for Peggy as she goes over the deep end, she's still a somewhat sympathetic and relatable character, at least for viewers who've never really "fit in". If you're going into this one blind, just be aware that it's more of a seriocomedy, with some rather dark elements, than a "girl and her dogs" laugh fest. As has been pointed out, the characters in this story that are the most compassionate about helping animals are shown to have some definite issues. Still, since they obviously have big hearts, one does hope for the best and hope that they get the help that they need.The acting is uniformly fine from a talented ensemble. Molly is well supported by Regina King, Laura Dern, Tom McCarthy, John C. Reilly, Josh Pais, and Peter Sarsgaard.While not all that realistic, this is a reasonably intriguing tale about one individuals' desperate need to find their purpose in life.Seven out of 10.

A few days before the posting of this review, I lost a beloved dog I had owned for over thirteen years. Her name was Kloe. Kloe was the most loving, sweetest, tender hearted dog I have ever had in my life. I couldn't have asked for anything more. Grieving over a lost pet, it brought me back to the memoirs of this movie I had watched a few years ago. Hence, it inspired me to write a review for it! My life is a little similar to Peggys, our lead character to this 2007 treat. The only difference, Peggy is single, and I am married. Other then that, I, too, am in my 40's, childless, and other then my wife, my fur babies are my world, my little family! I would encourage anyone who thinks "oh, it's just a dog...you can get another one." to watch this amazing film. No. It's not just a dog. You grow an emotional attachment to a dog, a strong bond, and in many ways, the same kind of friendship as with a real life person. When Peggy loses her dog Pencil ( who she loves dearly!), she finds her life spinning totally out of control. She finds herself doing her own private investigation into what caused his death. Suspecting that he was poisoned, she takes action in ways that are causing her to regard straight from emotion and heart, no longer from the mind. She becomes vegan, becomes an animal rights activist, and rescues more pets then she can handle at the same time ( with disastrous results.) While it is a comedy, Year Of The Dog doesn't rely heavily on the comedy side. It should be taken very seriously, and for sure, you want to be in the right frame of mind to really enjoy the show. This movie is for those who understand, and for those who do not understand respectively. For those who do not understand, hopefully you will after watching Year Of The Dog. * This is my 99th movie review, and I am dedicating this review to my little angel Kloebear. Rest in peace, you are returned to your rightful owner....but I will miss you! *

This is my first review. Warning: Do not see this movie.Children should not be allowed to see this movie! There is enough liberal claptrap in movies, TV, education and life and it is especially annoying to see it pushed at children. This movie is rated PG. It is listed as a comedy. It is not funny. There isn't one laugh in it. I can't imagine how an actor as good as Brad Pitt became involved.The best thing we can say about the movie is it has a lot of cute dogs. That is not enough reason to watch the movie unless you turn the sound off.A lonely middle aged woman is unhappy. She is unhappy in her job, doesn't have a boyfriend and then Pencil, the Beagle dog she loves dearly, dies from poisoning. Following that she makes decisions so poor that she should be a candidate for a mental institution. She becomes an animal rights activist akin to those that in real life the FBI has profiled as animal rights terrorists. She makes unrealistic choices which are supposed to be funny but aren't and rather than feel sympathy towards her, you think, "Well, that was dumb!" This whole movie is a propaganda piece for PETA. The best place for it is in the trash. That is where we put our copy.

Mike White's "Year of the Dog" stars Molly Shannon as Peggy, a frail, submissive, emotionally sensitive woman who spends her days taking abuse, being snidely judged and dutifully working at a dull, white collar job. Free time is spent cuddling with Pencil, Peggy's pet dog. The duo watch TV, eat microwave dinners and sleep together like a seasoned couple. Peggy's mocked by her coworkers, family, friends and boss. She takes it. Pencil doesn't judge her.When Pencil dies, Peggy traumatically confronts the fact that she has been pushed towards life's margins. Single, childless and "of a certain age", the dog's death sparks an existential crisis. Peggy responds by becoming increasingly neurotic. Realizing that society's apathy toward her dead pet masks a larger cruelty, a larger social violence, Peggy veers wildly in the opposite direction. She becomes an "animal lover" who "takes cares of animals". Later she funnels money from her company's business account into the accounts of various PETA-like charities. She also becomes a vegan. Mike White is himself a vegan and PETA activist.Far from a political tract, though, the film paints Peggy as a supremely messed up individual. This has led to animal lovers bashing White for painting animal lovers/vegans/PETA etc as nut-jobs who "love animals" because they "can't get along with humans". But "In The Year Of The Dog" is doing something completely different. This is Errol Morris territory, White painting everyone as being as neurotic as Peggy, be they overprotective parents, yuppies, work obsessed bosses, hunting fanatics, marriage-fixated dopes or lug-headed consumers. Everyone has their own obsession, their own symptoms. Indeed, Peggy's obsessions may even be less dead-ended, shallow and self obsessed than that of others in the film. But only marginally. While White spends most of the picture skewering the idea of "universal truths", "normalcy" and "mental health", he's also clear in his painting of Peggy as a highly messed up individual. The question the film asks is whether self-actualisation - Peggy's act of finally "becoming someone" and "asserting herself" - is itself a kind of hollow fiction; who you are is what you aren't, everyone is neurotic somewhere, all neuroses mask a desire for control, and what you do masks only what you can't. The Self is not only Other, but total damage. The film ends with Peggy boarding a giant bus packed with other animal lovers and activists. Her transformation into a radical is both mocked and celebrated. Once a doormat, she's now a warrior. Once a victim, she's now fighting back against a society that sweeps violence under a facade of kindness/normalcy. But Peggy's makeover is also something pathetic. She is who she is because she can't function any other way.8/10 – Worth one viewing.