Sundance London: Wiener-Dog review: Todd Solondz delivers a film in same vein as most of his back-catalogue – a comedy that fails to raise a smile.
Wiener-Dog review by Paul Heath, June 2016.
Wiener-Dog review
Todd Solondz returns to he screen for his first feature since 2011’s Dark Horse with this Sundance smash which, in true Solondz fashion, is sure to divide audiences.
Wiener-Dog is a collection of four short stories joined together by the subject of the title, a sausage dog, or dachshund who is branded with various names throughout. Our introduction to the dog is made during the opening title sequence where the brown canine is seen being delivered to an animal rescue centre from the back of a pick-up truck. From there he is ‘adopted’ by Tracey Letts‘ Danny and his young son and cancer survivor Remi (Keaton Nigel Cooke). Even though his mother constantly offers her unwillingness to take on a new burden, Remi cares for the small dog and gives him the name Wiener-Dog, and the two almost instantly form a strong bond. That is until Remi offers him a healthy me in the form of a healthy granola bar, which results in the dog crapping everywhere following a bout of instant, and very severe liquid diarrhea. Off to the vets he goes to be ‘put to sleep’ until he is immediately adopted/ kidnapped by veterinary nurse Dawn Wiener (Greta Gerwig), who saves his life and nurses him back to health.
Wiener-Dog review
Gerwig’s segment sees the dog once again renamed and we are constantly punished with a very, very tedious and annoying soundtrack fill that I still cannot get out of my head, as both dog and Dawn leave town following a chance encounter with Kieran Culkin‘s former classmate Brandon McCarthy.
The dog eventually ends up in the lap of Danny DeVito‘s Dave Schmerz, a New York screenwriter and university lecturer who is being given the runaround by his agents and the college kids he is trying to educate. We then have Ellen Burstyn‘s Nana, an ageing lady whose only friend is also a Wiener-Dog, this time named cancer. An unexpected visit from her granddaughter, who seems to have ulterior motives, leads to the old lady confronting her own mortality.
Wiener-Dog review
I get the structure and I understood the story behind Wiener-Dog, though that’s not to say that I enjoyed it. Any of it really. Solondz has always grated with most of his work, and unfortunately it is the same here. While the film does have some strong moments, the wafer-thin plot peppered with its canine device didn’t work for me, and its sporadic rays of light – notably in the performances of Danny Devito and the near-mute Ellen Burstyn, failed to make this an enjoyable yarn in any way at all.
That’s not so say that it’s an absolute dud. I feel that I was in the minority in the screening in which I viewed the film, and at least two-thirds of the audience were laughing along at various points – I just couldn’t find the humour, anywhere.
A very off-beat, pitch black comedy that, as I previously mentioned, will divide audiences massively. Fans of Solondz will no doubt lap it all up. It just wasn’t for me.
Wiener-Dog review by Paul Heath, June 2016.
Wiener-Dog screens at the Sundance London Film Festical from June 2-5th 2016.
