Edwin Pereyra
Senior HTF Member
- Joined
- Oct 26, 1998
- Messages
- 3,500
The 1985 Swedish film, My Life As A Dog by director Lasse Hallstrom (What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, The Cider House Rules, Chocolat) is a coming-of-age story of a twelve year old boy named Ingemar. Because of his Mom’s illness and an absentee father, he is forced to stay with relatives who could care for him. Staying with his uncle, he learns, among other things, about life, the opposite sex, death and loss. The film has won several awards including Best Foreign Film at the Golden Globes, Independent Spirit Awards and the New York Film Critics Circle Awards.
There is a certain simplicity in which Hallstrom tells his story of a young child growing up in the strangest of circumstances and surrounded for the most part, with some very eccentric characters. The story is supposed to touch us in one form or another. While it does that to a certain degree, there is also a feeling of distance created in the narrative between the audience and the main character.
I wasn’t quite touched by this quaint little film. As presented, I was merely a bystander in the many adventures of Ingemar. And I wanted to be more than that. Being at arm’s length with Ingemar’s experiences was, for me, not very fulfilling. Maybe it was because there were characters that were at arm’s length towards each other in the entire film (i.e. Ingemar with his relatives and maybe even with his Mom). Or perhaps it was my hope that the film could have been deeper and more meaningful especially in realizing the many themes it covers to be really engaging.
As with Hallstrom’s two previous efforts, The Cider House Rules and Chocolat), which turned out to be Oscar nominated films, My Life As A Dog also does not set off any fireworks. It more or less falls into that “average” category and then one wonders, what the big deal was all about?
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Film Greats – A continuing quick look at movies that, in one way or another, have been called “great films” by some. Other Films in this Series: Sergei Eisenstein’s http://www.hometheaterforum.com/uub/Forum9/HTML/007237.html
There is a certain simplicity in which Hallstrom tells his story of a young child growing up in the strangest of circumstances and surrounded for the most part, with some very eccentric characters. The story is supposed to touch us in one form or another. While it does that to a certain degree, there is also a feeling of distance created in the narrative between the audience and the main character.
I wasn’t quite touched by this quaint little film. As presented, I was merely a bystander in the many adventures of Ingemar. And I wanted to be more than that. Being at arm’s length with Ingemar’s experiences was, for me, not very fulfilling. Maybe it was because there were characters that were at arm’s length towards each other in the entire film (i.e. Ingemar with his relatives and maybe even with his Mom). Or perhaps it was my hope that the film could have been deeper and more meaningful especially in realizing the many themes it covers to be really engaging.
As with Hallstrom’s two previous efforts, The Cider House Rules and Chocolat), which turned out to be Oscar nominated films, My Life As A Dog also does not set off any fireworks. It more or less falls into that “average” category and then one wonders, what the big deal was all about?
- - -
Film Greats – A continuing quick look at movies that, in one way or another, have been called “great films” by some. Other Films in this Series: Sergei Eisenstein’s http://www.hometheaterforum.com/uub/Forum9/HTML/007237.html
