Year of the Dog (2007)

Screenwriter and actor Mike White gives 'Saturday Night Live' alumni Molly Shannon an impressive starring showcase in this creditable filmmaking effort. Molly shines as Peggy, a secretary who gets along better with animals than she does with people. Her whole world is devastated when her beloved pet beagle Pencil is poisoned. Circumstances for her get more and more ridiculous as she begins to embrace veganism and animal rights activism, to the detriment of what few relationships she has with people.While it is understandable that we can lose some rooting interest for Peggy as she goes over the deep end, she's still a somewhat sympathetic and relatable character, at least for viewers who've never really "fit in". If you're going into this one blind, just be aware that it's more of a seriocomedy, with some rather dark elements, than a "girl and her dogs" laugh fest. As has been pointed out, the characters in this story that are the most compassionate about helping animals are shown to have some definite issues. Still, since they obviously have big hearts, one does hope for the best and hope that they get the help that they need.The acting is uniformly fine from a talented ensemble. Molly is well supported by Regina King, Laura Dern, Tom McCarthy, John C. Reilly, Josh Pais, and Peter Sarsgaard.While not all that realistic, this is a reasonably intriguing tale about one individuals' desperate need to find their purpose in life.Seven out of 10.

I am an avid animal lover and movie buff. I watched the movie because of the cast (John C. And Molly Shannon) and the fact that it was labeled a comedy. It isn't a comedy; not even a dark comedy. But that was no big shock as IMDb slaps "comedy" genre on almost every movie. Even if you love dogs, you won't enjoy this movie. As a matter of fact, it is in no way "heartwarming" and I struggle to find a reason anyone would like this movie.The movie was very slow and the plot was weak. It was very anti-climatic and when the credits started to roll at the end of the movie I was left frustrated. I even tried to find some sort of deeper meaning or literary value but there is nothing to find in this movie. There is nothing interesting in this movie. What is the point of a movie if the story is boring and goes nowhere? Poor Molly makes the worst choices in the roles that she chooses.

i only rented the year of the dog movie because it was free.... but they should have paid me to take it, it is the WORSRT MOVIE in the whole entire world.why would you make the dog die at the beginning and then make it all sad and depressing through out the movie. i thought she was going to kill herself at the end honestly. i, i just don't know why they were making all of that bad stuff happen to one person and then have nothing good at all happen to her at the end. i cried during this movie a lot, because i saw that the credits at the end started and it was finally over.

This movie has got to be the worst movie I have ever seen. I watched it on Netflix and they said it was a comedy. Well, it wasn't. I laughed at the one part where she had 15 dogs in her car and that was it. She became insane the more she seemed to "like" animals. She didn't really take care of them. She let them do whatever they wanted. Anyway, this movie was a complete waste of my time. Don't waste your time on it. I expected more from Molly Shannon. I expected something smart and funny and all I got was dumb and boring and weird. There was nothing good about this movie. It was a strange movie and at the end, I was like "is that it?"