My Dog Skip (2000)

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

The title made it obvious that the story revolved around a dog, and I saw clips of the film at the time, I assumed it was maybe something funny like Beethoven, or something sweet like Marley & Me, I had no idea it was based on a true story, from director Jay Russell (Ladder 49). Basically, set in 1942, in Yazoo City, Mississippi, Willie Morris (Frankie Muniz) was a lonely boy and the only child of sometimes harsh and stuck up father Jack (Kevin Bacon) and charming and chatty mother Ellen (Diane Lane) with only a few friends, including neighbour and local sports hero Dink Jenkins (Luke Wilson) who goes to war. On Willie's birthday, against the wishes of his father, he is given a new puppy as a gift so he can have good company growing up, he names the dog Skip, and the become firm friends very quickly, playing with each other all the time. Willie does want to make some friends in and out of school though, and he does have some of the boys including Big Boy Wilkinson (Bradley Coryell), Henjie Henick (Daylan Honeycutt) and Spit McGee (Cody Linley), but they do eventually leave him alone and even allow him to become part of the gang doing something scary, which he does. The Narrator (Harry Connick Jr.), i.e. a grown up Willie explains that Skip helped him get through the best and worst parts of his childhood, helping him to make three friends and meet girlfriend Rivers Applewhite (Caitlin Wachs), but they do have a falling out when the boy's first ball game comes along. Willie is upset with a returned Dink not coming see the game and it going wrong that when Skip is there to try and cheer him up the boy hits him in frustration, and after the game he is unable to find his dog. Skip is in the graveyard where bootleggers Junior Smalls (Peter Crombie) and Millard (Clint Howard) are hiding moonshine alcohol in a crypt, the dog is hit with a spade by one of them just when Dink and Willie find him in the graveyard, the moonshiners are arrested, but the dog is hurt. Time passes as Skip is lying in the veterinary hospital and everyone is unsure as to whether he will survive, Willie sobs that he will never have a friend like his dog again if he dies, but Skip awakens and happily licks his friend's face and hands. The film ends with Older Willie (Michael Berkshire) leaving home to attend Oxford University in the United Kingdom, the narration explains that without Skip he would have no real childhood, and it is explained that Skip stayed and was cared for by the parents, sleeping in Willie's room, until he tragically died and was buried under the elm tree. Also starring Mark Beech as Army Buddy, Susan Carol Davis as Mrs. Jenkins and David Pickens as Mr. Jenkins. Muniz, who became Malcolm in the Middle the same year, is appealing as the little boy, Bacon and Lane are good as the sometimes concerned but supportive parents, and Enzo the dog is the sweetest character that steals all scenes he appears in. The story, based on a real one, is simple and easy to follow with all the right moral messages and family feel, I will admit it is corny at times, but that is part of the charm, it is a likable biographical drama that everyone can relax with. Worth watching!

Picturesque Yazoo, Mississippi in the summer of 1942 is where dog-eared Frankie Muniz (as Willie Morris) celebrates his ninth birthday. Pretty mom Diane Lane (as Ellen) has the perfect gift for her lonely son, an only child who is picked on by his peers for favoring books over football. Mother Lane wants Muniz to have a terrier puppy, although stern father Kevin Bacon (as Jack) vetoes the idea. He says Muniz is too young to accept the responsibility, but Mr. Bacon really worries about his son experiencing the painful side effect of unconditional love. Bacon soon succumbs to Lane's instance, and "Skip" stays in the picture..."Skip" (short for "Skipper") teaches Muniz to play football as well as read books. He overcomes shyness to go hand-holding with the prettiest girl in elementary school, Caitlin Wachs (as Rivers Applewhite). After much frolicking, we see some inevitable drama… so, if sad movies always make you cry, be prepared to shed a tear here and there… maybe even a bucket… The sentimental "My Dog Skip" begins to falter when the subplot involving "moonshiners" takes center stage; they clearly built this episode up to steer the drama, but it is excessively contrived and manipulative. Otherwise, this is an excellent, kid-friendly tearjerker.There are two particularly outstanding elements. First, the setting is recreated beautifully. Art and set direction are the film's most obvious strengths - with stellar work from David Bomba, Tracey Doyle and the crew. Notice how well director Jay Russell and photographer James L. Carter keep the setting aligned to the story being based on Willie Morris' youthful memories. Therefore, we get idealized recollections, with racism barely visible and the horror of wartime combat unfolding slowly in both Morris' mind and Bacon's sure-footed performance. Finally, the narration, whether or not verbatim, sounds like Willie Morris' prose.******** My Dog Skip (1/8/00) Jay Russell ~ Frankie Muniz, Kevin Bacon, Diane Lane, Luke Wilson

Willie Morris, an American author and Harpers Magazine editor, died in 1999, the same year this film was released. The film was dedicated to him. It seems therefore that he did not live to see it, despite it being based on the book he wrote about his childhood memories with his dog Skip. Morris (1934-1999) came from Jackson, Mississippi, and wrote two books of childhood memoirs, MY DOG SKIP and GOOD OLD BOY: A DELTA BOYHOOD. The 'Delta' referred to is the Mississippi Delta, a region made internationally famous by the classic novel by Eudora Welty, DELTA WEDDING, which is one of the greatest works of fiction ever to come out of the American Deep South. The film itself is transposed to Yazoo, Mississippi, for some reason, and some characters are changed or invented. The main theme of this story is of a lonely boy whose best friend becomes his dog. But it is interwoven with many simultaneous adult and childhood events and tragedies, so that a rich texture of life in the town is evoked and portrayed. It is very true to the pattern of small Southern towns as they used to be, with a boy's dog becoming a well-known member of the community who could be greeted heartily on the street as he trotted along. In this film, perfectly accurately, we see townspeople greeting Skip as he passes them, or saying: 'There goes Willie's dog Skip,' as if they were speaking of a person. There is one hilarious scene where Willie and his mother put Skip at the wheel of their car and the mother drives the car down Main Street while lying out of sight on the seat, so that everyone gasps with astonishment at the sight of seeing a terrier drive a car. Skip keeps his eyes on the road and the wheel and does not look to right nor left. Such things were common occurrences in such towns back in those days, and right up until the 1960s. After that, the small towns all over America were gutted by shopping malls, spreading suburban blight, and above all by the interstate highway system. All the small communities were destroyed overnight, and so stories like this one are now of archaeological interest. I grew up in a small Southern town and my dog, who was my best friend, was known by most of the people in the town and greeted in the street as if she were a person, exactly as shown in this film. Furthermore, my adult friend Sarah V. Thacker used to drive up and down Main Street with her pet pig sitting up on the front seat beside her. All of these things are absolutely what happened back then, but are as inconceivable now as if 1000 years had passed rather than just 50 years. Being a child when there was no meaningful TV, no internet, no cell phones, in an isolated small town full of colourful characters, and where you could wander round at any time of day or night with your dog, where no one ever locked his house or his car and not a single burglary or theft had occurred in more than 100 years, was in many ways delightful. All the nostalgia for such small town life is justified. I say that for the younger people who have never experienced it and cannot possibly imagine it. It was also a time before drugs, and before the mass commercialization of sex. In fact, it was quite literally a time of innocence. There were no murders, no rapes, no muggings, no burglaries, no car thefts, no school shootings, no drug addicts, and no one ever worried about a little child wandering around the town at any hour because nothing could possibly happen to him other than maybe tripping in the dark and hurting his knee. This vanished world, set in the 1940s and hence before my own time, is miraculously recreated in this film. The casting is superb. The little boy Frankie Muniz plays Willie Morris with perfect charm, and is just right. Luke Wilson is excellent as the student sports hero Dink Jenkins who lives next door. (My student sports hero was named Kermit Lance (who alas died young), who treated me with the same gentle and friendly consideration shown here by Dink.) Kevin Bacon is excellent as the tormented father who has lost his leg in battle, and Diane Lane is just as good as his mother. Caitlin Wachs is perfect as 'the prettiest little girl in town' who becomes sweet on Willie. The other kids are excellent. There are some excellent performances by the minor characters who, being black, are relegated to the background of the story because they lived in a different part of town in those days of racial segregation. One is the young actor Nathaniel Lee Jr. Another whose name I don't know played the man who worked in the grocery store and gave slices of 'baloney' to Skip. The black inhabitants of the small Southern towns were important figures in its composition in those days, but were as confined to their social circles in their private lives as many of the immigrant Hispanics and Muslims are today. The segregation was not entirely forced, for there is always a tendency for any minority to prefer a ghettoized social life, as we see today more than ever. At one point in the film we see a film being screened and catch a glimpse of the black children being confined to the balcony while the white children sit in the stalls below. In another scene we see the black people filing up the fire escape stairs at the side of the cinema to enter the balcony. These segregation details are not highlighted in the film at all, but are there for the sake of social accuracy. How well I remember the ridiculous four rest rooms in every bus station!

"My Dog Skip" is pretty feisty. Although Hollywood has hyperbolized this autobiographical account of late author Willie Morris' youth in Yazoo City in the summer of 1942 and the canine who changed his life, "My Dog Skip" measures up as an endearing, tail-wagging, Alpo epic aimed more at nostalgia-minded adults than adolescents. This pretentious but picturesque parable about a pooch (albeit one with more pedigree than most) and his famous young master strives for the poignancy of "To Kill A Mockingbird: but lacks the complexity of the Harper Lee classic. "Mockingbird" explored racism, while "Skip" only nods at it. Nevertheless, sophomore director Jay Russell has freshman scribe Gail Gilchriest have spun a superficial but entertaining saga about a boy and his dog that quenches your emotions without insulting your intelligence.Life for nine-year old Willie Morris (Frankie Muniz of TV's "Malcolm in the Middle") is no picnic. Not only is Willie small for his age, but he also doesn't fit in with everybody else. Being different at his age poses huge problems. Willie prefers reading rather than romping around with a football, so the school bullies regularly prey on him. They corner him after class, knock his books out of his arms, rip up a letter,and call him names. Willie's next door neighbor, Dink Jenkins (Luke Wilson of "Home Fries"),the most celebrated jock in Yazoo City, becomes his friend. The bullies cannot understand why Dink pays Willie any attention. When Dink enlists in the U.S. Army for duty overseas in Europe, Willie is saddened because he is losing his only friend. Although his father loves him, Jake Morris (Kevin Bacon of "Sleepers") is so embittered by the loss of a leg in the Spanish Civil War that he doesn't give Willie much room to frolic. Ironically, Jack tries to shield Willie from the pain of life as he struggles to deal with his own loss. Meanwhile, Willie's resourceful mom, Ellen (Diane Lane of "Untraceable"), awakens the Tom Sawyer in her son. She gives Willie a puppy for his ninth birthday. Jack hates the idea. "Dogs are just a heartbreak waiting to happen," he insists. Willie's heart will break, he fears, if anything tragic happens to the animal. Despite Jack's objections, Ellen puts her foot down. Willie gets to keep the puppy! Skip becomes Willie's best friend. Willie's circle of friends widens. Eventually, the school bullies accept him, especially after Willie spends a stormy night in a spooky graveyard without turning chickening out. This is where Skip and Willie run afoul of two scummy bootleggers. Skip acts as matchmaker, too. He arranges Willie's first date with sweet little Rivers Applewhite(Caitlin Wachs of "Thirteen Days"). They go to a movie and share popcorn with Skip. As Willie's confidence swells, he takes Skip for granted. At a baseball field, where Willie is playing finally instead of watching, Skip delays the game. An enraged Willie clobbers him, and Skip skedaddles. Later, pair of villainous bootleggers traps Skip, beat him with a shovel, and leave him for dead."My Dog Skip" unfolds as a fairly ordinary sequence of vignettes which feature either Willie undergoing his rites of passage or the mischievous Skip in an adventure of his own. For example, when Jack and Skip are collecting blackberries, they cross paths with a couple of hunters. Willie watches as a deer dies from a rifle shot. He touches the blood with his fingers and examines the blood as the animal takes its dying gasps of air. Russell and Gilchriest have taken a formulaic plot and embroidered it with several ironic lessons about life. Luke Wilson's ill-fated jock, Dink Jenkins, serves as a contrivance to show that not all cowards are alike, especially when they hail from championship stock.Frankie Muniz refuses to be upstaged by the six adorable Jack Russell terriers alternating in the lead role. Two of them, Moose and Enzo, appear on NBC-TV's "Frasier." Luke ("Blue Streak") Wilson rounds out a sympathetic cast as Willie's next door neighbor who fights the Nazis and experiences the horrors of combat and the shame of cowardice. Ken Bacon brings surprising depth and compassion to what essentially constitutes a cameo as Willie's wounded father. Jack Morris displays a dour Hemingway quality. Although he won a medal for losing his leg in the war, Jack assures Willie,"I'd rather have the leg." Only kids that have not been weaned on Ritalin, PlayStation, and MTV will appreciate this tear-jerking tale about a terrier with its refreshingly authentic depiction of rural Mississippi. "My Dog Skip" shuns the slobbering slapstick of "Beethoven" for the heartfelt sincerity of "Old Yeller." Above all, despite his scene-stealing antics, Skip balks at performing far-fetched feats of the Rin-Tin-Tin variety! Willie Morris saw "My Dog Skip" three days before he died of a heart attack at age 64 and gave the movie his blessing.