April 27, 2007
As a writer of offbeat TV fare (the short-lived "Freaks and Geeks") and films intimate and independent ("Chuck Buck," "The Good Girl") and studio-made and star-driven ("School of Rock"), Mike White has shown a gift for turning assumptions on their head. Characters who appear to be stereotypes -- i.e.
geeks and good girls -- end up being wholly unique and human, while situations that look all too predictable prove anything but.
White makes his directing debut with "Year of the Dog," working from a script he wrote for Molly Shannon, a "Saturday Night Live" alum. This is her second leading role; her first, in "Superstar," was based on her 'SNL" sketch character Mary Katherine Gallagher, an ego-inflated, stardom-obsessed Catholic schoolgirl.
White has surrounded Shannon with an excellent supporting cast that includes Laura Dern, Peter Sarsgaard and John C. Reilly, all playing people we define by their primary obsessions.
For Peggy (Shannon), a 40ish, single assistant to a boss (Josh Pais) who is a bully and a self-obsessed bore, the focus is on her little beagle, Pencil.
We tend to understand why when we see Peggy spend obligatory time with other humans. Her work pal, Layla (Regina King) is completely devoted to a boyfriend who Peggy knows plays around; her brother (Thomas McCarthy) and sister-in-law, Bret (Dern), talk and think about nothing but their kids. Going home to adoring, low-maintenance Pencil seems pretty inviting.
But one night Pencil won't come in, and frustrated Peggy goes to bed without him. The next morning she discovers him whimpering and motionless in the yard of her next-door neighbor Al (Reilly), and when she leaves the vet, it's without her companion.
Peggy tries hard to keep it together; she even accepts the offer of a dinner with Al, which goes OK until she discovers he's a hunter, which turns her off.
Through Newt (Sarsgaard), a sweet, sloe-eyed guy who specializes in rehabilitating dogs that have been given up on by their owners, she adopts Valentine, a German shepherd who has severe behavioral issues. From there, things go seriously downhill and become seriously funny.
"Year of the Dog" is always a comedy, even as it addresses sadness and loneliness and lives that are less complete by the standards of glossy magazines.
White knows that all of us have a Peggy in our lives, or else suspect we have become suspiciously like Peggy, and while "Year of the Dog" relishes ironies and visiting contemporary life's more uncomfortable and unavoidable places, it also makes us see how common they are.
In most movies, Peggy and the casually cruel Bret would be objects of derision, an opportunity for us to feel superior; here, they are real people who might make us cringe, but who also demand understanding and respect.
As noted, "Year of the Dog" has been perfectly cast, and Shannon is a small revelation; shorn of the antic energy she has invested in her sketch characters and, given an actual character to play, she accomplishes something welcome and unexpected.
We recognize Peggy not as a person we know from movies and TV, but from next door.
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