Raise your hands if you’re a fan of the 1987 Swedish, coming-of-age tale “My Life As A Dog.” If not, you should be.
‘Dog,’ is a wonderfully sweet, funny and tender tale about a handful of a young boy who is sent off to live with relatives by his sick mother. The film kick-started Lasse Hallstrom’s (“What’s Eating Gilbert Grape”) international career and was made when the filmmaker knew how to expertly calibrate the tones and textures of emotional sentimentality without being cheap, manipulative or overly treacly… which is basically where Hallstrom’s career has been ever since “The Cider House Rules” in 1999 (almost every subsequent picture been hamfisted and saccharine except for maybe “Casanova” and “The Hoax” which were both decent, but not fantastic).
One would think this reeks of desperation, but Hallstrom is not directing the film, and going back to that well instead will be Swedish director Daniel Fridell who will turn it into, sigh… an English-language film (figures).
The sequel called “My Father, His Son” will commence shooting in 2010 according to Variety and it’s also based on the novel, which centers on the same boy, now 15 years old, signing on as a sailor and taking a trip to Cuba.
Don’t expect the charming boy who played the lead character Ingemar (Anton Glanzelius) to revise his role either. He’s 35 years old now and obviously can’t pass for a teenager (this just gets worse and worse, huh?)
‘Dog’ was so lovely it launched itself out of its Foreign Film ghetto and earned Best Directing and Best Adapted Screenplay nominations that year. If you have as much affection for this film as we do, you’re probably as disappointed to hear about this as we are (regardless of whether the original did write his own sequel and the new director is familiar with youth-oriented dramas). Some stories should just be cherished and left alone.