Lasse Hallström dishes up more classy mediocrity with this brazenly uncomplicated treat for dog lovers. Richard Gere (ageing with such elegance you half-expect him to appear in velvet monogrammed slippers) is a music professor who takes in a lost puppy. The dog is a Japanese Akita (which looks something like a super fluffy blow-dried German shepherd) and the story is tenuously based on that of a real dog in Tokyo in the 1920s. It kept up a loyal vigil outside the station used by its master for a decade after he died and was commemorated with a statue. So, man bonds picturesquely with dog before tragedy hits. Gere comes into his own for the bonding: all twinkly, hard-won wisdom, flashing just a tantalising glint of misspent youth. The dog delivers, too. Unfashionably slow, the film offers gentle observations on grief and pets (the companionship, the breed-bores new owners become, the disruption to domestic harmony and hygiene) which will no doubt have you squeezing out tears, either of boredom, or slushy emotion. Embarrassingly, for me it was the latter
by Rendu Saadan Thandi
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