By Travis Johnson
Director Lasse Hallström (The Cider House Rules, Dear John, The 100-Foot Journey) adapts the vastly popular novel by W. Bruce Cameron (8 Simple Rules for Dating my Teenage Daughter), which tracks not just a dog, but the soul of a dog, as he travels through various incarnations and enriches the lives of the humans around him.
You know what that means? Multiple canine death scenes. Take an entire box of tissues. In fact, take two – Hallström directed Hachi: A Dog’s Tale, after all, and that’s a weapons grade tearjerker.
The only thing that gives us pause is the fact that the dog has a voice, and that voice is Josh Gad (replacing, weirdly enough, Bradley Cooper). Still, Dennis Quaid, Britt Robertson, K.J. Apa, John Ortiz, Juliet Rylance, Luke Kirby, Peggy Lipton and Pooch Hall round out the cast, which ought to balance things out.
A Dog’s Purpose is in Australian cinemas from April 6, 2017.
