The Art of Racing in the Rain

Facebook if filled with feels for dogs and cats. The Dallas Video Festival is having a CatFest on Aug 22 which will include dog videos too. So if you love this kind of thing then this new film is in your wheel house. Based on the book The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein directed by Simon Curtis from a screenplay by Mark Bombeck is all about that perfect dog and his hoomin. You can guarantee not having a dry eye in the house.

Milo Ventimiglia plays Denny Swift a race car driver who on the way home one afternoon stopped at a farm house that had some dogs to adopt. He's drawn to one friendly little guy who he names Enzo (after Enzo Farrari of course). The dog is voiced by Kevin Costner. The typical expected bonding is told in cute episodes. Enzo is brought to Denny's races where he meets and is loved by his all his friends and mechanics. Denny cute meets Eve (Amanda Seyfried) who is more of a cat person. But Enzo is able to have everyone love him. The years role swiftly by as Denny and Eve get married, they have baby Zoe (Ryan Kiera Armstrong as the young Zoe and Lily Dodsworth-Evans as the teen Zoe) who becomes Enzo's bestie. The crisis comes when Eve gets cancer and they have to rely on Eve's well to do parents played by Mark Donovan and Kathy Baker. Dad is not happy about Denny being a race car driver.

There's the expected grieving, and custody battle by Eve's rich parents, and the inevitable reunion. The humans are of course all self involved with the drama in their lives. It's up to Enzo to narrate their story from the dog's perspective. It helps the dog is a beautiful Golden Retriever. He runs with Denny, watches videos of racing which Denny explains to him the formula of his success of winning when it's raining. He has tea parties with Zoe, rescues Eve when she gets sick in the woods, takes out his frustrations with Zoe's zebra plushy when he's left at home for several days with no food or water. Enzo doesn't take a shine to Eve's parents, calls them the twins. Gives a present on the carpet to Eve's dad who sorely deserved it after feeding him a pepper. Enzo explains that when dogs pass they are reincarnated as humans in their next life. If that's the case, you may want to be a little more patient to that flea bag taking up your living room floor.
(Review by reesa)