Netflix Instant Queue Movie Review: "Hachi: A Dog's Tale" (2009)

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Movie: "Hachi: A Dog's Tale"
Director: Lasse Hallstrom
Year: 2009
Rating: G
Running Time: 1 hour, 33 minutes

Professor Parker Wilson (Richard Gere) finds an Akita puppy at the train station and takes it home in order to locate its owners. Much to the chagrin of his wife Cate (Joan Allen), Parker becomes more and more attached to the dog. Since no one comes to claim the dog, Parker eventually convinces his wife to let him keep it. Parker and Hachi create a great bond and become almost inseparable, except for the times when Parker has to go to work. He takes the same train to work and the same train home every day. Hachi learns what train Parker comes home on and without fail is there every day to greet him, no matter what happens. 

If the dog's name is in the movie, guess what you'll be doing at some point during the film?? ~*CRYING~*

The story itself is pretty simple and has been done before, but this isn't a terrible movie, it just feels a little bit long. It may have had more impact if it had been done as more of a short film as opposed to a feature-length movie. Since this movie is loosely based on a true story from Japan, it does help its cause a little bit, but the movie seems to be whitewashed like many Hollywood productions. It wasn't even featured on the big screen in America, and we watched this on the recommendation of a friend. I seemed to enjoy it a little bit more than BigJ did, but I paid more attention to it...it was just sort of background noise for him.

I love my dog, so maybe that's why I gave it the rating that I did, maybe that's why I gave it a higher review than BigJ did. If anything happened to my little Freddo Potato, I would be devastated, just as many pet owners would be if their furry friends perished. It's always remarkable to hear a story about a dog's unwavering devotion to its owner. Dogs are capable of so much more than we know. They truly are a person's best friend. Beyond this, all in all, the story was pretty basic and the acting was okay, but would we watch it again? Probably not. It's sort of one of those "watch it once and move on" types of filler films. Dog owners who love sappy stories, keep the tissues handy.

My Rating: 6.5/10
BigJ's Rating: 5.5/10
IMDB's Rating: 8.2/10
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 62%
Do we recommend this movie: BigJ says meh, I say sure, why not?