Life with Dog (Movie Review)

We were sent the movie Life With Dog from Mill Creek Entertainment to watch and review as a family. 

Movie Description:

My wife had faith, I had doubt - you'd be surprised how well those two work together!" That's been Joe Bigler's "life operating manual" until his wife died in a mysterious bicycle accident. Now without her faith to help him mourn, and his doubt driving toward a mystery surrounding her death, Joe is left with more questions than he can handle and quickly finds himself spiralling into a dark abyss - uncertain of all things. His rescue comes in the form of a Dog who wanders into his rose garden and refuses to leave. "Dog," as Joe unaffectionately refers to him, never utters a single bark, but engages Joe in silent conversation, and together they form an unexpected bond. And with that bond comes a new understanding of love, mercy, and compassion along with the beginnings of a personalized faith that helps Joe not only begin to grieve and heal, but also discover the answers to the unsolved mystery surrounding his wife's accident...and ultimately an ability to forgive at the highest level.


My Review:

This movie is okay. It is definitely not super friendly for young kids. So I was surprised to see it not rated and was asked if I was going to review it with my family. So we sat down to watch it and felt that it was not a movie that was really meant for anyone younger than 16 to watch-- maybe even 18. Depending on your children.

However, while my 13-year-old did not watch it, my 11-year-old did and you will see her review here.

While in theory, kids can watch this, I would highly suggest that it be older. The reason being is that it touches on subjects like death, injustice, wanting to seek out justice, grief and how all those things can be going on after someone loses someone they love.

I felt the description of the movie didn't totally describe the whole movie in the fact that it made it seem like it was more Christian based than it was.

The end of the movie felt like it was more abrupt and that more could have been told. It felt that parts of the story were missing. But I do love that it ended with not only justice being served but that the old guy didn't kill the young man who killed his wife.

The thought of him not only interacting with his dead wife but seeing her was interesting. I wonder if people who grieve have a sense of not only seeing their loved ones who passed away but also interacting with them. I do like the thought of his dead wife helping to guide him out of his grieving process and move into a forgiving process.

Overall, I would give this movie a 3 out of 5.



Via's Review:

Hi, it’s me Via, and today I am reviewing a movie called Life with Dog.
To start off I would like to say this is not a family-friendly movie. Joe pulls a gun on two people
and also starts a fight with the bank-person. Unlike what the title entails this is not centred around
a man and a dog. No, this is a story about a man grieving the loss of his wife and looking for the
murderer. With a dog conveniently in the right position to help the man. The movie doesn't even
have a happy ending. The man (Joe) pulls a gun on another man (Nathan) who ACCIDENTALLY
killed his wife by running her over. Then, the detective comes behind them and Joe and Nathan are
handcuffed and Nathan is let go and Joe gets in a police car. End of story, literally. Oh, and the dog
was there the whole time doing nothing. I didn’t like this movie. I wouldn’t have watched it if I came
across it in the library or if I was searching online. Others might like this movie but I’m no fan.
I don’t think I’d recommend this movie. I think someone must be at LEAST 9 to watch this though
I would recommend 11-13.

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