Bitch

My apologies to Marianna Palka, but this is a terrible movie. I am fully able to accept the plot where a woman suffers a mental breakdown and takes on the personality of a dog. Yes, she literally thinks she is a dog, and not a friendly family dog, but a mean, aggressive one. She has a terrible and unfaithful husband who leaves all the stress of running a household and caring for 4 kids squarely on her shoulders. It appears she takes on the personality of a dog because dogs have no responsibilities.

What makes the story unbelievable are the characters. The dad is such a bad dad that he doesn't know the name of his kids' school. His four kids go to a private school so he is obviously paying several thousand dollars a year. I can understand a bad father being out of touch, but he is spending that kind of money and he doesn't know where his money is going? That's pretty hard to believe.

Then when the older kids get dropped off at middle school they ask for lunch money. He hands them a $100 bill and asks, "Is this enough?" Really? Is the writer trying to show the dad is that far out of touch? Or is she trying to show us how frantic the dad has become since mom's disappearance.

The two older kids are in middle school. Yet, when mom starts acting like a dog those two young teenage kids think it's funny. The way the scene is directed it is not funny, it is disturbing. Mom has been missing for a whole day. Dad and the mother's sister come into the home after frantically searching the neighborhood for her, and the kids are laughing doing kids things like playing video games. The kids happened to locate their mother. She is in the basement, stripped of all her clothing, covered in her own fecal matter, and literally acting exactly like a vicious dog. If this happened to my mom when I was 12 or 13 I would be incredibly upset and worried. I wouldn't be laughing at the situation.

He's also been married to his wife for a while as the oldest is 13 years old, yet he doesn't know the name of his sister in law's husband. His wife's sister does not live across the country. She lives in the same city, and the two sisters appear to be very close. Despite this the dad doesn't know the name of the man his sister in law has been married to for years? That's ridiculous.

When it becomes obvious the mom needs professional help, the family doctor is called in. He refers them to a professional who deals with these sorts of situations. It's not said in the movie, but this other professional must be a psychiatrist. A real general practitioner with an M.D. is not going to refer an obviously mentally disturbed person to a self-help guru. Additionally, this second professional can write prescriptions. After the examination the sister asks the psychiatrist for an official medical term for her condition. The doctor's answer? "Acting like a dog." Not funny, but stupid. No real psychiatrist is going to say that.

I love a good goofy movie. Adam Sandler and Will Ferrell movies have their place. In a good, silly movie the dad can be so bad as to not know the name of the kids' schools or their own brother in law. The silly psychiatrist in the silly movie may have an official diagnosis of "acting like a dog". However, this movie isn't directed like a silly movie. It's trying to be a realistic, dark comedy. Sadly, it cannot be said that the director didn't see the writer's vision and tried to turn a silly movie into a more realistic comedy because the director IS the writer.

This week Stephen Spielberg said movies on Netflix should not be eligible to win Oscsars. Don't worry Stephen, they're not going to win any Oscars.

Came across this on Netflix and thought the premise looked interesting. Actually thought it was going to be a cheesy horror flick, but was glad it turned out to be something totally unexpected. The acting, especially Ritter's is superb. Some of the dialog had me cracking up, which I think was intentional. Such an unbelievable premise was handled very realistically. There were some very touching moments in the film as well, and all of the characters had some degree of likability. Would definitely recommend for those who like the occasional offbeat film. I also felt the ending was appropriate, though folks who like things made more obvious might not.

For a low budget indie film, it's not terrible.

It looks nice, considering its budget.

What is readily apparent, is that it's trying to be different just to be different.

It is bizarre, but not in an interesting way.

The pacing is not exactly great, and the writing seems random.

A really interesting concept, but not made exceptionally well. It seems a bit long, and doesn't really look at real case, affect and solution/outcome, so it all feels a bit pointless. Kind of funny in bits, but I wouldn't put comedy as its genre. The female lead acted really well, but other cast members were lacking a bit.

There's really not much mystery to it. Or much to it at all. From the first few moments of the movie you see that Jill is having a mental break down and you see that her husband is a nightmare. By the end of the movie they try and make it a revelation that we finally have figured it all out... the husband is a nightmare. When we've known this from the very start and all the way through.

How is any guy this bad? He acts like a little child who used his wife as a slave. He's the most selfish man I've ever seen in a character. And he can't even see it. Why would anyone put up with that for over sixteen years? It's very infuriated to watch it.

She turns into a vicious dog? Thats whats written on the summery of the film. They show very little images of her as a dog. You mostly hear her, not see her. They refuse to show us how on earth she ran so fast on all fours. And covering herself in human poo is not something a dog does. Further more that is down right abuse to leave someone like that. She would start to rot and get serious illnesses. They have some plot holes with this. The movie is more so directed at the husband and how he reacts, not so much Jill being dog like.

The movie is not funny. There's no mystery. It's mostly all filmed in the colors blue and white. They try and make it fast paced with fast conversations and loud annoying music. It does flow nicely and it keeps interest as you're hoping there will be more to it, unfortunately there's not. It does wrap itself up very nicely. But almost too quickly. It goes from one degree to the next on a dime.