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Susan Granger's review of "MY DOG SKIP" (Warner Bros.)
Every once in awhile, you get to see a movie you don't know anything about and, when it's over, you want to make sure everyone else does know about it. That's the way I feel about My Dog Skip. Narrated by Harry Connick Jr., it's a childhood memoir, going back to the small Mississippi town of Yazoo in the '40s during World War II, tracing the coming-of-age of young Willie (Frankie Muniz of TV's Malcolm in the Middle), a scrawny, shy, awkward boy, eager to learn about the world. Willie lives with his stern but well-meaning dad (Kevin Bacon), who lost a leg during the Spanish Civil War, and good-hearted mom (Diane Lane) and dog Skip, a Jack Russell terrier. It's Skip who enables Willie to stand up to the neighborhood bullies, speak with confidence to the prettiest girl in school (Caitlin Wachs), spend a stormy night in Greenwood Cemetery on a dare, even explore the colored section of his segregated town because dogs, "being smarter than people," perceive no boundaries. But, above all, Skip forges his connection with Dink (Luke Wilson), his neighbor and the local sports hero, who goes overseas to fight Hitler and comes back disgraced and emotionally wounded. Part of an autobiographical novel by the late Willie Morris, a legendary literary figure from the '60s who edited Harper's magazine, it's been adapted for the screen by Gail Gilchriest and directed by Jay Russell as a haunting, delicately etched, character-driven, old-fashioned, anecdotal story that mixes humor, menace, and pathos, evoking the timeless relationship between a boy and his loyal, loving dog. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, My Dog Skip is a, scruffy, engaging 8. It's a wistful, warm and wise movie that you and your whole family will love.
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