The most arresting thing about writer-director Michael Kalesniko's warmhearted new film is its title:
How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog
.
Generally speaking, you can't go wrong with a title as controversial and outrageous as that. Yet, despite having such good actors as Kenneth Branagh and Robin Wright Penn in the cast, Kalesniko has.
Oh, there's nothing really wrong with
How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog
that a solid rewrite and faster-paced editing wouldn't help.
But even then, this story of a child-hating, once-famous playwright who makes friends with a little girl to help him create a believable child character for his new play would seem pretty obvious and ordinary.
Its dimensions are small. So is its payoff. Rather than showing up on the big screen as part of the Newport International Film Festival, it would seem that
How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog
would be more at home on TV, on something like the Lifetime cable network.
Branagh's Peter McGowen has had a long time between hit plays and his new one is going badly in rehearsals. It's not much better on the home front, where wife Melanie (Penn) makes not-so-secret overtures about having a child of their own.
When 7-year-old Amy (Suzi Hofrichter) moves in next door, Melanie sees it as an opportunity to kindle Peter's dormant fatherly instincts. When Peter is urged by his producer (Peter Riegert) to get in touch with a child so he can come up with a believable child character for his play, he begins having tea parties with Amy, writing down her every word.
Amy, true to the syrupy nature of the material, is not only a wise child, but one whose cerebral palsy has left her with a limp. Soon Peter has fallen under her spell, and she under his.
The dog of the title belongs to another neighbor and keeps Peter awake with its early-morning barking. Wide awake and wandering his suburban neighborhood in the wee hours, Peter soon meets a strange man (Jared Harris) who identifies with the playwright and claims that his name is also Peter McGowen.
Despite the somewhat weird and threatening aspects of this Peterimpostor, the real Peter befriends him, sort of, and uses him as a sounding board . . . until the man shows his true crazy-quilt colors.
Interspersed with all this is a week-long interview on a local Los Angeles early morning show in which the seemingly airheaded anchor (Peri Gilpin) peppers him with inane questions . . . until she finally hits on Peter's most vulnerable point.
Then, there's almost bloodshed and a frantic, funny scene. Similarly, there's eventually a showdown between Peter and Amy's mother about the nature of raising the girl. These things lift a film that is otherwise played at one level -- flat.
Branagh and Penn and the rest do a fine job with the material at hand, as does Lynn Redgrave as Melanie's increasingly opaque mother, who can't remember that Peter is her son-in-law. One only wishes, however, that they'd been given something a little more pointed and flashy to do, so they could really unleash their considerable talents.
**
How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog
Starring
: Kenneth Branagh, Robin Wright Penn, Suzi Hofrichter, Lynn Redgrave, Peri Gilpin, Peter Riegert, Jared Harris.
Producers:
A Millennium Films production written and directed by Michael Kalesniko.
Playing
: Showing at 8:30 tonight at the Opera House Cinemas as part of the Newport International Film Festival.
Rated
: Not rated, contains profanity, adult themes.
Running time:
1 hour, 47 minutes.
Digital Extra:
For a schedule of the Newport Film Festival, go to http://www.projo.com/movies/newpfest/
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