As the Oscars near, it is important to remember some films that may have been overlooked in the past. “My Life as a Dog” is a Swedish-language film that almost flawlessly captures the innocence, pain and turmoil of growing up.
“My Life as a Dog” earned director Lasse Hallström a Best Director nomination at the 60th Academy Awards in 1988. This is of particular note because it is one of seven foreign language films to be have a “Best Director” nomination in the past three decades. The subtitles do not take away from the experience of the movie.
The film follows a 12-year-old boy named Ingemar as he is sent across the country to a small village when his mother becomes ill. There, he is exposed to a wide array of quirky characters, both adult and children.
The village is enticing with strange events, from children boxing in the top of a barn, playing “doctor” with the tomboy girl, to Ingemar being exposed as a peeping Tom to the attractive lady that works at the glass mill.
However, it is not all fun and games in this small Swedish village. Ingemar must deal with the painful realities of growing up. Love, loss and dealing with changes inside and out offer a powerful dynamic into the harsh realities of early adolescence. All of this is handled rather brilliantly.
The pain and terrors of life are expressed through death, lost love and even the simple desires, such as a 12-year-old boy wanting to talk to his mother. It is difficult to express how wonderful this movie truly is without giving out major plot points, but it will make the viewer laugh, cry and most of all: think. The characters are multi-dimensional, and Hallström makes the viewer care about them. This is where “My Life as a Dog” succeeds most. The character development is superb, and should be the standard on how to tell a story.
Hallström does a terrific job of maintaining the balance of an innocent childhood, and painful experiences that happen with life, as well as growing up. What Hallström does particularly well is make the viewer grow up with Ingemar. Not too much, nor too little is revealed in the plot line until the time comes. It is the closest thing to a flawless movie one can ever find.
It also makes the viewer wonder, what happened to Hallström’s story-telling abilities? The same person who made a flawless movie with fantastic characters in “My Life as a Dog” lost his way. Rather than try to make a movie that makes the viewer feel and experience through dynamic characters and creative storytelling, Hallström’s spent the past decade making movies with generic plotlines and Nicholas Sparks-level gag-inducing heart string pulling. The same person that made incredible movies like “My Life as a Dog” and “The Cider House Rules” is also responsible for the godawful “Dear John,” “Safe Haven” as well as his latest dud, “A Dog’s Purpose.”
It is a shame to see a director waste his potential with shameless sugar, when he is more than capable of making a true classic film. “My Life as a Dog” represents everything great about the coming-of-age film, but also represents how far Lasse Hallström has fallen.
