Dog lovers and survivalist story lovers will get more for their money watching Heart of the Beast than the average moviegoer or dog-disinterested and dog-neutral types. This critic belongs firmly to the former club, therefore tilting the critical faculties in favor of the film, a surprisingly strong and engagingly cinematic entry in the dog flick genre. To cut to the quick: This is one of the best damn dog movies yet made. Says a card-carrying dog person and movie addict.
It’s hard not to fall in love — on first sight and impact — with Odin, the wounded but seemingly indomitable ex-combat German Shepherd, and with rugged anti-social veteran played by Brad Pitt. The pair, joined at the heart and soul, find themselves stranded after a Cessna plane crash. They are forced to brave an assortment of challenges — animal aggression, environmental harshness, and injurious mishaps — in the remote but majestic outpost of Alaska (the film was actually shot in New Zealand, everyone’s escape route come the Apocalypse — and now we see why). It’s an odyssey, of sorts — to use an ancient yet recently renewed term — with northern lights in the mix.
What may seem like a threadbare scenario for a feature-length film, Heart of the Beast pulls us into its minimalist, suspense-driven narrative for a couple of hours. Pitt, not always at his best when forced to interact with other humans, is spot-on as a loner man of few words with a profound love of dogs, and Odin (actually played by four different Odins) is a powerfully magnetic scene-stealer.
A third star helps: the stunning, sometimes punishing, natural landscape.
Director Ayer has shown a flair for conveying a sense of place and urgency in his past work, especially in his most well-received 2012 film, End of Watch. In that film, the place and points of tension are very different, though somehow related: The danger-pocked wilderness area is South Central Los Angeles, a gritty landscape of peril but also excitement for young cops Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña. In Watch, Ayer gives the story a visceral edge through handheld camera work and bodycams and dashcams, which police only began using in 2012.
In Heart of the Beast, the sensory approach logically alternates between vulnerable visions and a sense of wonder at God’s green earth. In a strange way, the tight two-against-the-world pairing at the center of that earlier film can be compared to the tight man-dog bonding in the new film. We are repeatedly reminded of the PTSD-inducing ghosts of their wartime memories and dreams, contrasting the very real sting — along with embracing natural beauty — of life in their present tense.
Spoiler alert — the good kind, and as thankfully telegraphed in an introductory flash-forward: The dog does not die. Which it did in The Dog Stars (shame on you, Ridley Scott).
Heart of the Beast is the kind of movie that may inspire you to go home and give your pooch extra-long hugs and an extra treat — when your wife isn’t looking.
Heart of the Beast is showing at Metropolitan Fairview Theatre and Metropolitan Paseo Nuevo 4 Cinemas.
Watch the trailer here.
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