'Year of the Dog' takes a poignant look at life

By CARLA MEYER
Wednesday, April 25, 2007

The dark, quirky and unusually thoughtful comedy "Year of the Dog" celebrates individuality and chides those who impose their own definitions of happiness on others.

Peggy (Molly Shannon), a primly dressed administrative assistant who works in a nondescript office building, doesn't exactly fly a freak flag. But her lack of boyfriend and surfeit of photos of her adorable dog, Pencil, make people itchy.

In his directing debut, Mike White, who wrote "Chuck & Buck," "The Good Girl" and "The School of Rock," favors shots of people standing in the middle of the frame. The space around them might be for their neuroses.

Peggy gets insulted about twice an hour. Her boss (Josh Pais), obsessed with his job, mentions that Peggy didn't get the education he did. Her co-worker and best pal (Regina King), intent on getting married herself, wants Peggy to find a man and stop "shacking up with dogs." These two are as deep into their own things as Peggy is hers. But their things are more socially acceptable.

Pais and King ensure that their characters come off as decent people who actually take notice of, and care about, Peggy. Most people aren't interested in Peggy's life. They can assume from a distance that it's pretty pathetic.

"Year of the Dog" shows that life in all its poignant and slightly absurd detail. Peggy eats her dinner standing up, next to where Pencil eats from his bowl. At night, she curls up in bed with the pup.

The comfortable life Peggy has built for herself is shattered when Pencil dies suddenly. Peggy must look to humans for sympathy and companionship.

Whether on "Saturday Night Live" or in supporting roles in films, Shannon tends to draw laughs by playing her conventional appearance against a misfit streak. Usually, watching Shannon means anticipating the moment her kookiness will reach the surface.

Peggy certainly displays kookiness, but it emerges almost organically through the character's emotional duress. Shannon lends the character many layers, starting with a self-protective top layer endangered first by the dog's death and then by attempts to fill the void.

A date with her neighbor (John C. Reilly, once again deftly mixing lunk-headedness and innocence) leads to the film's funniest line, but he doesn't seem as good a fit as Newt (Peter Sarsgaard). An animal-rights activist and rescue-dog trainer, Newt inspires Peggy through his love of animals and his veganism. Sarsgaard brings a likably mellow quality to Newt, along with an ambiguity that's intriguing to the audience but frustrating for Peggy.

All the actors are terrific, but Laura Dern stands out as Peggy's sister-in-law, Bret. A well-to-do suburban mom, Bret fancies herself a great pal to Peggy, and to everyone else, when she's actually quite condescending.

Dern captures the touch of pity behind the smile of a woman who believes she has it all and that you, sadly, do not. But beneath that lies a fear that her perfect life could fall apart with the slightest misstep.

White establishes the characters, and Peggy's quandary, so well that the picture's conclusion seems forced by comparison. It wraps up too neatly what for Peggy has been a highly disorderly experience.

3 stars

Cast: Molly Shannon, Peter Sarsgaard, Regina King, Josh Pais, John C. Reilly and Laura Dern

Director-Writer: Mike White

97 minutes

Rated PG-13 (suggestive references)

(Carla Meyer can be reached at cmeyer(at)sacbee.com)