“Lost Dog” on Netflix: when not even a beautiful Labrador saves a boring movie | REVIEW

While thinking about how to successfully approach a beautiful college campus classmate, student Fielding Marshall (Johnny Berchtold) has a vision: another girl happily plays with her dog on the lawn. Immediately, the protagonist of “Lost dog”, the new film that leads the ranking of the most viewed on Netflix Peru, decides to get a pet. He is not the first human being to think that this way he will stop going unnoticed and can automatically become someone ‘popular’.

Visiting a dog shelter, the lanky, scruffy college student encounters a host of dogs eager for affection, but it’s one that catches his eye the most. It is about a little Labrador who, with his bright eyes and his beautiful coat, quickly ‘convinces’ him to make him part of his life. So, he decides to call him Gonker.

So far we have described the initial moments of “Lost dog”. It is a film based on true events directed by Stephen Herek. If we take into account its title (nothing intriguing), we can imagine precisely what it is more or less about. The disappearance of a dog, that is, the abrupt interruption of the bond between the young protagonist of the film and his ‘best friend’.

This is not an argument whose characteristic is originality, therefore, it is time to quickly look at the details that accompany the story of Fielding and his dog Gonker. In the first place, we are before the portrait of a university student who, overwhelmed by family pressure and his peers, ‘fails’ when it comes to expectations and ends up almost nowhere. So he graduates (even late for his graduation party) and, unlike his classmates, finds no job, so he is forced to return to the family home.

At home a small and somewhat gridded family awaits him. A father, John Marshall (Rob Lowe) who, as a result of his efforts since youth, now has no financial problems, Ginny Marshall (Kimberly Williams-Paisley) a stay-at-home mother who hides a particular story also linked to pets and, finally , Peyton Marshall (Savannah Bruffey), a sister who lives completely disconnected from others.

Although the crux of this film has to do -as its title does not subtly suggest- with the disappearance of Gonker-, the truth is that it does not shy away from the drama. For example, an attempt is made to portray a relationship between father and son, let’s say, broken. The former, although understanding and attentive at times, deep down expects much more from his adult son. The second, bearer of a particular sensitivity, clearly goes at a different speed and gets entangled very easily when explaining his feelings and needs.

In the middle of these characters is, without a doubt, Gonker. And before talking about him, we cannot avoid going back to other great mascots of cinema and television. Each one stood out for its beauty and abilities, but fundamentally for its naturalness. From “Turner & Hooch” (with Detective Tom Hanks and a massive Fila Brasilero dog) to “The Mask,” where a Jack Russell Terrier named Milo did whatever it took to become the dream dog of a generation, passing, obviously, by “Bethoven”, a huge Saint Bernard who did his thing in a saga that is difficult for anyone to forget.

What do these dogs share with Gonker? Being honest, only its beauty. Although its shiny coat and clear eyes are captivating for any ‘dog lover’, in everything else the differences are evident. The choice of this Labrador does not seem to have followed minimum criteria such as proper training and time to interact with the actors in the cast.

Only a dog that has not been sufficiently trained or that is completely unaware of the actors with whom it will have to share roles can look at the camera or at its trainer (surely behind the camera in each scene) as it happens several times in this new film by Netflix. And although this is tempered by the attempts of Fielding and his parents to be affectionate with the beautiful labrador, the result is not optimal.

But supposing that everything described in these last paragraphs can be put into question, what else does a movie like “Lost dog”? In itself, the drama, let’s say, secondary has to do with the distances between father and son. As the dog seems to get further and further away from its owner – let’s remember that it got lost exploring the Appalachian Trail – the plot outlines another estrangement: that of a father who is unable to listen and that of a son who has lost the desire to speak. .

Although the film was able to delve a little deeper into the way in which these differences find certain signs of resolution, the truth is that it ends up running away from their development, perhaps replacing them with a long list of strange elements, such as motorcyclists trying to show sensitivity, teenagers making meaningless bonfires, grandmothers who suffer from dementia and make false telephone complaints, or thugs who are scared by two well-reasoned words.

But the “father-son” drama is not the only wasted element in a 90-minute film that could have been half as long. Fielding’s mother has a traumatic personal history with dogs that is exposed only two or three times (although her closure does, admittedly, improve). Fielding’s friend appears and disappears, then reappears with unbelievable speed. The sister of the protagonist the same. In itself, we are facing a story in which, if it were not for the problem that threatens the life of a missing dog, everything would go without any problem.

From the positive side, which is not much, it is worth saying that the bond between Gonker and his owner, and after Gonker with the latter’s family, actually follows an ascending path, so later seeing everyone sad with his disappearance is a notoriously credible event. For all this, although this film by Stephen Herek is destined to be a sensation for ‘dog lovers’, if we measure it with proposals of a different type, it will unquestionably lose out. In other words, we are facing a love story between men and dogs that, unfortunately, risks being easily forgotten.

LOST DOG/ NETFLIX

Director: Stephen Herek

Synopsis: When his beloved dog goes missing, a young man and his parents embark on an incredible adventure to find him before it’s too late…

Duration: 90 minutes