A guy moves into his grandfather’s old house in the middle of the woods with his trusty dog by his side. Almost immediately, the dog begins seeing ominous, human-shaped shadows lurking around the property. It’s then up to the courageous canine to protect his master at all costs.
Good Boy is basically a haunted house movie from the dog’s point of view. It’s an intriguing concept, but one that has to thread a very thin needle. If you lean too heavy in one direction it might wind up being like The Incredible Journey. Go too far in the other direction and it could end up with Look Who’s Talking Now. It’s a tricky balancing act to be sure. However, the filmmakers are only intermittently successful at executing their admittedly high concept idea.
The way director Ben Leonberg puts the humans in the background, makes them out of focus, or keeps their heads out of frame is reminiscent of how Spielberg filmed the adults in E.T. It’s also similar in some ways to Steven Soderbergh’s Presence, which was a ghost story but seen through the eyes of the ghost. Because of the dog’s acute senses, he can hear and see things his human master can’t. (Conversely, we are privy to information the dog doesn’t have, like text messages.) It’s all clever enough to work, but not quite smart enough to make it a classic or anything.
Leonberg does everything he can to squeeze every last drop from the slim scenario. Even at a relatively scant seventy-three minutes it still feels padded, especially when the dog starts having nightmare scenes. I mean one doggy dream would’ve sufficed, but we’re talking multiple dreams here. It probably would’ve worked better as a short, although I can’t quite fault everyone involved for trying to milk a feature length movie out of it.
It does have at least one effective jump scare, but it basically falls apart in the third act. The non-existent finale is especially weak. Had there been a bit more action (or chills) in the home stretch, it might’ve skated by with ** ½. Still, it has its moments.
In short, Good Boy isn’t a complete dog.
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