{"id":18881,"date":"2019-08-07T06:08:00","date_gmt":"2019-08-07T13:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=18881"},"modified":"2019-08-07T06:08:00","modified_gmt":"2019-08-07T13:08:00","slug":"the-art-of-racing-in-the-rain-spins-its-wheels-in-melodrama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=18881","title":{"rendered":"THE ART OF RACING IN THE RAIN Spins Its Wheels in Melodrama"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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It seems like there has become a whole separate genre of tear-jerker\nmelodramas devoted to pooches and their influence in our lives. Marley &\nMe<\/em> is an obvious example, and in the years following we’ve gotten titles\nlike Red Dog<\/em> (which I admit, actually worked on me), A Dog’s Purpose<\/em>\nand A Dog’s Journey<\/em> among many, many others. These movies aren’t exactly\nsubtle and almost seem to revel in their emotional manipulations, doing\neverything they can to try and eke sniffles out of viewers. Based on the novel\nby Garth Stein, The Art of Racing in the Rain<\/em> follows this trend,\nabandoning every ounce of subtlety. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Denny Swift (Milo Ventimiglia) yearns to be a Formula One\ndriver and spends all of his free time working towards that goal. He finds a\nkindred spirit in a puppy he names Enzo (voiced by Kevin Costner). The dog\nnarrates his life with his master, following the man as he tries to juggle a\ncareer and a family with wife Eve (Amanda Seyfried). Of course, tragedy strikes\nat various intervals, resulting in hardships and suffering for both Denny and\nthe pooch. Enzo details these problems with an unending series of eye-rolling racing\nmetaphors that more or less teach his owner to focus on the immediate moment\nand never give up on his aspirations.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As you might have expected, the golden retriever featured is\nridiculously cute. It’s a nicely photographed film that mostly consists of Enzo\nand his family staring contemplatively into the camera while numerous\nvoice-overs describe the ups and (mostly) incredible downs that befall the\nfamily. Obviously, Costner is a huge star and it’s understandable why he might\nhave been chosen to voice the dog. However, it is odd for his gravelly voice to\naccompany a cute little puppy. Even as the animal grows, this reviewer wasn’t\nsure if the intonation fit Enzo’s personality. And what the actor is given to\nsay doesn’t help matters. As written, the dog is given anthropomorphic qualities\nand interactions with his master come across as forced at the best of times,\nand pure schmaltz at their worst. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The movie does attempt to insert a little bit of humor here\nand there, although it could certainly have done with much more. One series of\nrunning gags involving a stuffed zebra that becomes Enzo’s nemesis, does earn a\nchuckle. But for the most part the story squarely focuses on the family melodrama.\nThere will be no surprises for audiences, as Denny struggles to get along with\nhis in-laws (Kathy Baker and Martin Donovan) and things quickly turn uglier.\nLater sections of the feature are delivered with the subtlety of a two-by-four\ncoming down over the head repeatedly. As such, the important emotional\nrevelations don’t make an impact and feel obvious in their manipulations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The golden retriever looks adorable and the talented human\ncast do what they can to make the most of an overpoweringly sentimental\nscreenplay, but it feels like a movie that’s trying far too hard to simply make\nviewers weep. In the end, the results are so artificial that this reviewer\nwould have had an easier time with the story had the dog actually learned to\ndrive and race cars – I would have bought into it more than the actual\nfeature’s final moments. As it stands, The Art of Racing in the Rain<\/em> spins\nits wheels but finds itself unable to pull itself out of a sinkhole of\nmelodrama.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It seems like there has become a whole separate genre of tear-jerker melodramas devoted to pooches and their influence in our lives. Marley & Me is an obvious example, and in the years following we’ve gotten titles like Red Dog (which I admit, actually worked on me), A Dog’s Purpose and A Dog’s Journey among […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":18886,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[197,1172,1843,1844,1845,6014,8476,11617,13989,15073,19923],"class_list":["post-18881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-197","tag-amanda-seyfried","tag-art-of-racing-in-the-rain-film-review","tag-art-of-racing-in-the-rain-movie-review","tag-art-of-racing-in-the-rain-review","tag-dogs","tag-golden-retriever","tag-kevin-costner","tag-milo-ventimiglia","tag-novel-adaptation","tag-the-art-of-racing-in-the-rain"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18881\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}