Year of the Dog

I'm a sucker for movies about people and their pets. This film stars former SNL player Molly Shannon as a secretary whose personal life revolves around her beagle, Pencil. When he passes away unexpectedly, she has to find another reason to go on. The film first hints that she'll discover the world of humans around her, particularly men, as two new ones (John C. Reilly & Peter Saarsgard) enter her life. But it smartly steers away from the obvious and veers into a more original voyage of self-discovery. My only real problem with the film is that a lot of the supporting characters are a little too caricature-esquire (notably Shannon's boss, played by Josh Pais), but writer/director White does a good job of redeeming them for the most part. A very touching, gentle film that's well worth your time.