L'art de courir sous la pluie

Un peu de guimauve de temps à autre n'a jamais fait de mal à personne, on s'entend, mais servie en plat principal dans une chaudière de sirop, ça devient carrément indigeste.

 Résultat: un film indigeste et manipulateur, que la réalisation tout juste fonctionnelle de Simon Curtis ne parvient pas à sauver.

If loving and being loved (plus being fed) is their purpose, then perhaps that is true.  

It's all kibble in the end, but you knew that coming in.

But as a movie, even with a growl-weighted Costner's admirably even-keel delivery, Mark Bomback's adaptation, as rendered by Curtiswith the help of unobtrusive cinematography from Ross Emery, is little more than an audiobook with information-appropriate window dressing.

If Marley & Me was too depressing for you, be warned that My Week With Marilyn director Simon Curtis' heavy-pawed melodrama is engineered to make you weep.

The latest entry to the canon of talking-animal movies is a tearjerker whose furry, four-legged hero imparts essential life lessons.

Two-thirds tiresome dog story, one-third efficient tearjerker.

The Art Of Racing In The Rain is fairly soulful as far as these things go, with Curtis having made a handsome, quick-moving film.

Cynics may go into this film dreading another version of the same old tear factory, but The Art of Racing in the Rain does just enough to turn you into a smiling, tearful mess at the end of the film.