If you were the chief of a volunteer fire department and got an emergency text about “Smokey in a tree,” one might assume some dire arboreal flame. But screenwriter John Harrington, pouring a weak foundation for director Kirk Harris, gives poor widowed Kate Sanders (Abbie Cornish) something else at the end of that cry for help: a cat stuck in a tree. That’s all you need to know about Dakota, a dog-lover’s movie that’s supposedly intended to honor military veterans, but does little more than treat its cast—including animal talent—like idiots.
Kate lost her husband in Afghanistan, and she is struggling to save the farm (seriously) where she lives with her daughter Alex (Lola Sultan). Against this rural Georgia backdrop, a good-cop/bad-cop gets played out with officer Mike Danforth (Roberto Davide) and his brother, Sheriff Danforth (Patrick Muldoon). Mike is a good guy, but the sheriff seems to twirl an invisible mustache as he plots to take away Kate’s farm, which he thinks was stolen under from the Danforth family by Kate’s father-in-law Monty (the reliably terrible William Baldwin). Meanwhile, CJ (Tim Rozon), an army buddy of Kate’s late husband, comes to Georgia to return the Belgian Malinois to Kate. Will CJ and Dakota save the farm?
Dakota blandly regurgitates a number of Hallmark family-movie tropes, including several from the 2015 movie Max, also about a military dog that served in Afghanistan and returns to America to help out the family left behind when his master was killed in action. What seems to be a drama turns into broad comedy when the sheriff plots to do away with the canine newcomer who’s suddenly become a hero in town, luring Dakota with the promise of gelato. “There’s only room for one alpha dog in this town,” the sheriff warns Dakota, while the viewer cries bitterly.
Granted, Muldoon, a “Days of Our Lives” vet who has since made an awful lot of awful animal movies, seems to be having fun with his villainy. The same can’t be said for poor Cornish, who has come a long and unfortunately downward way from Bright Star. The filmmakers repeatedly put her in humiliating slapstick situations, as when she tries to climb a tree to save Smokey the cat—and quickly falls on her back.
The cat-in-a-tree scene is at once the film’s worst and best; it gives Dakota a chance to hurry under the branches and heroically give Smokey a soft landing (on the dog’s back) when the cat inevitably fails to hang in there.
The Belgian Malinois doesn’t get much more respect. While in one scene she’s smart enough to elude capture by the sheriff and two bumbling henchmen, just a few scenes later the trained military animal suddenly turns stupid and falls for another dognapping attempt. The double-henchmen dynamic recalls the 1992 film that launched a long-running franchise starring a Saint Bernard. A closing title card announces that, “This film is dedicated to all men, women and dogs like DAKOTA who bravely protect and serve.” What better way to honor veterans than with a movie that makes Beethoven look like The Magnificent Ambersons.
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