Expectations often color what we see.  I noticed that while I watched Year of the Dog.  The trailers for the film gave me the impression that this would be an eccentric romantic comedy in the style of Me and You and Everyone We Know.  Judging from the laughter, others thought the same thing, and saw that sort of film as they watched this film.  But that wasn’t the film I saw.

This is not a comedy about off-beat people finding the joy of love by meeting the person that begins to fill the void in their lives.  Rather, this is a film about unhappiness and finding no place to fit in.  In dog terms, it is about being a stray.

Dog terms do come into play in watching this film.  Consider some character names: Peggy Spade (as in “spayed”), Newt (as in “neutered”), and Al (as in “Alpha”).  Each of these names describes the characters, especially for Peggy and Newt.  They are people who are not really able to connect emotionally with others.  Peggy doesn’t seem capable of connecting with anyone.  Newt is very sexually ambivalent.  In his house we see pictures of him and a woman, him and a man, and him and a dog.

Peggy is the real center of the story.  After her dog dies, she is in mourning.  Newt finds a new dog for her, but the dog has issues and needs training.  Soon, Peggy and Newt are spending a great deal of time together.  We watch as Peggy begins to adapt to Newt.  We see her becoming converted, almost in a religious sense, to the cause of animal rights.

She is a classic convert.  She not only internalizes her new ideas, she becomes a missionary, telling the other people in her life about all the things she has discovered and trying to convert them as well.  And like most missionaries, her zeal is seldom matched by those she seeks to save.

But dogs are not solitary animals.  Peggy becomes more and more isolated.  Soon she is struggling to get by emotionally.  She begins to steal (as stray dogs rummage through trash).  She seeks out a pack, but really doesn’t fit in.  She is in the midst of a meltdown.

In a romantic comedy, there would be a rescue from this meltdown.  She would find her love, her place, and her pack and soon begin to escape from the unhappiness that holds her.  Instead we are left with a taste of hopelessness.  It’s unlikely that the paths Peggy goes down will result in her finding her place in the world.

Every day animal shelters try to find homes for rescued dogs—abandoned, lost, abused.  Those who take them in may have work to do to bring healing to the dogs’ lives, but are often rewarded with a faithful, loving friend.  Peggy needs such a rescue, but never finds it.  That would have made this a wonderful romantic comedy.  Instead we get a few laughs when we could just as easily cry with pity