There’s a phrase that has been used for dogs for a long time that everyone knows and loves: “man’s best friend”. The reason why we say this is that dogs can be the most caring, loving, and loyal animals.
Now that we all agree that they’re our best friends, why don’t we consider their purpose? Just like us humans, certainly, every dog has a reason in this world. Now what exactly is their purpose? This is the question – next to the most basic question of why we are here – that the movie “A Dog’s Purpose” tries to answer with opening the hearts of every single person who watches it.
In the US, it was already released on January 27, but sadly in the UK, it comes out on April 14.
We watched it and loved it. Well, we cried, smiled, laughed, cried, and… did we mention we cried? If you love dogs, you can’t miss this film!
Check out the trailer and read what we thought about the movie below!
“A Dog’s Purpose” is an inspirational story based on W. Bruce Cameron‘s bestselling book with the same title. It is directed by Lasse Hallström, who has given us numerous heartwarming movies such as “Dear John”, “Save Haven” and “Hachi: A Dog’s Tale”. We’ve seen these films and it is guaranteed that you will shed some tears while watching them. So the emotions in “A Dog”s Purpose” was absolutely not surprising to us.
The story is about the journey of Bailey, a golden retriever puppy. Across multiple lives, he tries to figure out his purpose. Unlike other remarkable dog stories, this one is told from a dog’s perspective, which makes it more unique. It gives dog-lovers an unmissable experience, as it leads the audience behind the scenes. We hear from the narrator Bailey how deeply our dogs feel what we feel and what we all go through.
Bailey is reborn three times in the movie, and with each new life, he is learning a new lesson. Although every time his life is coming to an end the dog thinks he has found his purpose, he still finds himself wondering about what life still has in store.
Yet again, everyone who has ever had a dog won’t be able to leave the cinema dry-eyed.
Bailey’s search for his life’s meaning begins with a little boy, Ethan, who happens to rescue him from a hot car. From that moment, Bailey and Ethan become best friends and spend every day together. As the years pass, during their numerous adventures, Bailey learns how to be a good dog. However, being a beloved family pet is just the beginning of his journey.
He is reborn as another dog, this time as a female German Shepherd, Ellie, still remembering her previous existence. She works with a police, Carlos, thinking the purpose of this life is actually to save lives. Just then the new life immediately ends with a shot by an armed kidnapper.
Now Bailey reincarnates into another life again as a Corgi. His new mission is to help Maya, a lonely college student to find true love. There’s another dog in the house who Bailey may or may not fall in love with, and even if he protects the female animal he’s not sure this is the point of his journey.
Then Bailey dies and he is reborn as a puppy yet again, but now he isn’t led into loving arms. He’s taken in by an abusive family, where he can’t make sense out of his life. Fortunately, our narrator escapes and out of nowhere, he finds himself where his first life began. He meets grown-up and lonely Ethan and starts to sense he has finally found the purpose in his life. As he helps to make Ethan and his first love Hannah get back together. At the end, Bailey manages to convince Ethan he is his beloved childhood pet by performing an acrobatic maneuver with a deflated football that the two had done years before.
This is how the dog tries to convince his first owner that he is his beloved childhood pet.
Within the two hours of watching the film, we’ve learned a lot about not only the unbreakable bond between dogs and humans but also the truth about human relationships. Bailey taught his owners how to laugh and love, meanwhile he showed us how deep and meaningful a dog’s love and loyalty can be.
If I can get you licking and loving, I have my purpose.
Most of the scenes allowed us to connect with the characters and the plot line while making us remember our own experiences with dogs. We’ve learned that the extraordinary connection with our pets and the unconditional love never dies, even after death. This touching, beautifully crafted story also teaches us that every single creature in the world is born with a purpose.
These are a few of the reasons why we couldn’t help but cry and smile a lot, while we got goosebumps. Still, the creators of the movie gave us the chance to often burst into laughter. Especially when the situations, because Bailey as a normal dog doesn’t understand English, result in hilarious misunderstandings.
The film stars Britt Robertson, K. J. Apa, Juliet Rylance, John Ortiz, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Peggy Lipton, Dennis Quaid and Josh Gad (the voiceover of Bailey).
Robertson is not unfamiliar to this industry, and again, after “Tomorrowland” she proved that there are still so many sides of her that we don’t know. She played her role so realistically that we almost forgot that Hannah wasn’t a real person.
We must not forget that for Apa (19), who plays as teenager Ethan, this movie was his big screen debut. Unbelievable, right? Just a guy who is currently starring in the “Riverdale” series, getting a springboard to a successful acting career with an important role. K.J. Apa will be now a rising star to follow, and we’re looking forward to seeing what the future holds for him.
Every actor and actress were incredibly connected to their characters – they were all perfect fits. It’s important especially in a moving story, where it’s so challenging to play the roles, but they did a great job portraying the characters. We couldn’t have chosen a better cast.
Overall, we couldn’t mention anything we didn’t like, so “A Dog’s Purpose” gets a 10/10 from us.