How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:139
Fresh:96
Rotten:43
Average Rating:6.4/10
Consensus: Year of the Dog is a warm and quirky comedy that never condescends to its eccentric characters.
Runtime: 1 hr 38 mins
Genre: Comedies
US Box Office: $1,470,625
Synopsis: Any dog-lover would be a fool to pass up this charming dark comedy from director/screenwriter/actor Mike White (THE GOOD GIRL, SCHOOL OF ROCK, CHUCK AND BUCK). Famous for her iconic portrayal of... [More]
Starring: Molly Shannon, Peter Sarsgaard, John C. Reilly, Regina King
Director: Mike White
Despite director Mike White's ability to make the heartfelt moments count, the film never makes the grade. The title prompts great expectations for animal lovers; the result is a bit like a doggie bag with a taste of everything, but not enough of anything
Top CriticClick to read the article
Top CriticMuch is said in little moments: The entire cast offers jots of humor and insight, from Reilly and Sarsgaard to Laura Dern as a spiny sister-in-law and Regina King as Layla, a vehemently supportive friend.
Year of the Dog is an enjoyable, patchy, rambling affair, a series of bittersweet comic sketches strung together with thin wire.
There's an undeniable sweetness to the movie's celebration of surrendering to one's best self.
Top CriticMike White has had the courage to redirect his abundant quirkiness away from benign nerdiness and toward a quiet subversiveness.
There's a lot of truth and beauty in Year of the Dog, and most of it radiates from the performance of Molly Shannon.
Dark, quirky and unusually thoughtful.
White's humanist account of a woman more comfortable with animals than people is another intricately crosshatched sketch in his gallery of outsiders.
If you have a taste for off-center characters, you're barking up the right tree.
John Cusack gives the performance of his life in this top-class horror.
What could have been a feel-good performance from Molly Shannon is instead delicate, poignant, and an unexpected display of dramatic mastery from an actress who's made her name with comedy.
A bittersweet dark comedy about a lonely middle-aged woman who finds that animals are the only beings she can truly rely on.
Top CriticMinimalist non-romantic comedy from debut writer/director Mike White (writer on "School of Rock") asserts that substituting the love of animals is equal to or even greater than spending time with people.
A gentle, melancholy and silly movie about a loner whose only secure source of affection is her beagle.
Even as the film makes Peggy's life appear simple, the complexities she feels become clear in her responses to events that appear, at least at first, quite beyond her control.
Year of the Dog asks how far we should be willing to go for the love of animals, and for that matter, for love itself.
Poignant but not sappy and darkly funny without being farcical.
Though the film falters in terms of its lack of a streamlined narrative, there is no denying that it is packed to the rafters with meaty ideas and characters who are charged with a satisfying moral ambivalence.
An intriguing (if decidedly uneven) debut effort.
August 29, 2007:
RTIndie: Indie Movie Glut Makes Screenings Tough In NYC
This week at RTIndie, we'll take a look at what the over-saturation of specialty films has done to New York's theatrical landscape. Plus, AOL screens 40 minutes of the... More...
August 28, 2007:
RT on DVD: Blades of Glory, Air Guitar Nation, and Heroes: Season 1 Arrive!
It's an exciting week to be a fan of NBC's Heroes (we vote Petrelli -- Peter Petrelli!) but the uninitiated also have rival figure skaters, real-life air guitarists, and plenty... More...
April 28, 2007:
Trailer & Poster review 
More...
April 22, 2007:
Box Office Wrapup: New Films No Match For Scary Shia
In the battle of the single-word-titled thrillers, "Fracture" beat out "Vacancy" but neither could dislodge "Disturbia" from the number one spot... More...
Last week, Moviefone offered us their worst films of the 2000s. Now see their 40 best!
We're giving away copies of Judd Apatow's latest.
RSS Feeds
Comment
