Heart of the Beast was an Insider Screening at my local Showcase Cinema and if you have seen the trailer then you know that it's basically Brad Pitt and a Dog. The longer set up is that Brad Pitt plays James who is a retired Special Forces Officer seemingly living off grid with his dog Odin and whilst flying James suffers a heart attack and he and Odin go on a trek to get to a road to civilisation. The concern I had for the film was whether the dog would survive as I have already sat through enough films this year to have a dog die but thankfully the film answered that within 90 seconds as we then go back one week in time.
There are only two other credits in the entire film. The first is Anna Lambe who plays the woman who comes across Odin at the start of the film and takes care of him as they drive off into the sunset. It's hard to really critic her performance bearing in mind she's probably on screen for two minutes. J.K. Simmons is in the film for slightly longer although I think it's just so that James has someone to talk to even if it's brief.
The bond between Brad Pitt and Uber (Odin) is at the core of the film. It's hard to be mean about the dog because he is quite adorable although the film spoils the fact that whatever he goes through the dog will make it. Brad Pitt is an odd actor. Sometimes I think he's very good and sometimes I think he's ok. To be honest, he got outacted by a dog. That's not to say he does bring something to the story.
The film is pretty good. It's not groundbreaking but for a 90 minute film, I was never bored and never thought that the film was stretching credibility. The CGI bear was pretty bad but that was probably the worst thing about the film. The film did really try and tug and the heartstrings when James was reading the note at the end. Odin's story is more interesting than James' because and this might just be my naivety but dogs getting PTSD isn't something that I thought was a real thing but I suppose it is.
Heart of the Beast is the sort of thing that would be good to watch at home. It's the definition of a streaming movie. It benefits from having an adorable dog, a good lead but also from the setting. This year really has been the year for spectacular landscapes and cinematography. The mountains look stunning and even the woods looked more impressive than in a lot of films with these types of settings. It's a well directed film from the guy who didn't do very well with Suicide Squad.
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