HACHI: A DOG'S TALE (2009) ***1/2 You may want to read a little more about this movie before you watch it, but if you don't you should read nothing. Not even this. Read it after, if at all. I am a sentimentalist, and a dog person. The two run together so often that I do not know if they are part of the same thing. Richard Gere is good in this movie, and the Akita is a noble breed, but this movie is all Lasse Hallström. In a good way. I mean, I guess. It unfolds so slowly, then it hits you very hard in the middle and never tries to recover. It just goes on. Everyone's favorite Danish director directing an aging Hollywood heartthrob in a subtly but thoroughly oriental dog movie. Can there be peace, is it reassuring? Only if you find qualities reassuring. But if you do not, you must have stopped seeking reassurance so long ago. Or found it. Sarah Roemer and Joan Allen are great too, but Lasse never lets them get into a position to be as moving as the dog. It's a really good dog movie. For sentimentalists. Other people might like it too. It unfolds so slow, like the piano sequence on the train in Spirited Away . To win here, you must be willing and able to take the hit.
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