PLOT: A young race-car driver (Milo Ventimiglia) earns himself a friend for life when he adopts a puppy he names Enzo (voiced by Kevin Costner), who becomes his constant, adoring companion through triumph and tragedy.
REVIEW: Dogs are a pretty foolproof way to make audiences cry. All it took for THE ART OF RACING IN THE RAIN was the opening shot of Enzo the dog, aged and lying in wait for his owner to come home, to provoke audible sniffles from the audience I saw this with. And bear in mind, this is the very first scene! With that in mind, it should come as no surprise that THE ART OF RACING IN THE RAIN is the kind of movie that should have employees of movie theaters worldwide handing out tissues as people walk into the theater. They actually tried to do this with LIFE ITSELF, but alas, that movie didn’t have a dog (and, of course, wasn’t very good).
To be sure, THE ART OF RACING IN THE RAIN is a specific kind of tear-jerker, with it obviously geared towards a broad family audience to such an effect that some of the rougher edges found in the book this is based on (by Garth Stein) have been sanded away to make this into a PG-rated family film. Even still, this is a classier attempt at a dog movie than many recent entries into this tried and true genre, with sophisticated direction by MY WEEK WITH MARILYN & WOMAN IN GOLD’s Simon Curtis.
However, a lot of the common issues that come up in dog movies are a problem here. Most significantly, the humans aren’t that interesting. Milo Ventimiglia is certainly no stranger to tear-jerkers, given his work on “This Is Us”, but his racer Denny is two-dimensional. Ventimiglia plays him as free of any character flaws whatsoever, although I suppose the argument could be made that we’re seeing him through the eyes of his adoring dog- although by idealizing him they’ve also made him kinda dull. The same goes for Amanda Seyfried as his young wife, although at least she gets some of the hard-core weepie material as the film goes on. By contrast, Denny seems oddly vacant, despite the never-ending series of tragedies that befall him. We also never really learn much about his motivations for being a racer. It’s shown to be his passion, but we never really get a sense of his devotion to the sport. Enzo seems much more into it than he is.
Yet, I still really liked THE ART OF RACING IN THE RAIN. If Ventimiglia and Seyfried are a little dull here, they’re still likable and, really, that’s all you need in a movie like this. What really makes the movie work is the dog, and this has a great dog in the guise of Enzo, the cuddly lab. Kevin Costner’s soulful, wise voice is the perfect counterpoint to this smiley, the tail-wagging pup we see on the big screen, and who doesn’t like watching a dog mess around for a few hours? If you’ve ever had a dog, moments in this will hit brutally close to home, such as any scene where he seems sick or sad. We sense that our dogs love us unconditionally, and the film plays into that, especially through Enzo’s ultimate wish to be reincarnated as a man and his devotion to his master and his family. Costner himself seems more than a little moved by some of the passages he’s reading. I’m pretty sure I even caught his voice breaking at one instance that feels like there must be outtakes of Costner weeping in a recording booth out there somewhere.
THE ART OF RACING IN THE RAIN is fairly soulful as far as these things go, with Curtis having made a handsome, quick-moving film. Most importantly though, it’ll make you cry. Even if you’re not prone to getting emotional at movies, don’t be surprised if you find yourself wiping away a few tears by the time the credits roll.