The book, A Dog’s Purpose, by W. Bruce Cameron, made its way to theaters quickly for all canine-lovers. It follows the story in the perspective of a dog named Bailey as he tries to find his purpose in life. He gets reincarnated multiple times and with each life comes new lessons to learn. He learns to rescue, comfort, love, and to adapt to his surroundings. All of these important aspects come together to fulfill his purpose in life, which is to love and save people from despair.

Before the movie was put into theaters, a clip was released of what looked to be a German Shepard being abused. According to the star actor, Dennis Quaid, “ I was there. I never saw any abuse of any animal. And if there had been, I would have walked.” He and many other sources have confirmed there was no violence on set. This lead people to pop the question, including Quaid, “If the dog was abused, why didn’t he raise something at the time?” When I heard about the video I was shocked, but after watching the movie, I thought the video looked very suspicious and I had a feeling it was edited. This incident did not influence my decision to watch the movie. With that being said, I thought the movie was not going to be as sad as it was. I had not read the book yet, so I did not know what the storyline was beside a dog being reincarnated repeatedly. The main reason I wanted to see it is because I am a huge dog lover.

The director Lasse Hallstrom did a fantastic job with making the dogs the stars of the show. As most people would say, it was a cuteness overload! The voice of Bailey was played by Josh Gad, who convincingly portrayed a dog full of curiosity and impulsive decisions. I enjoyed how humorous he was in contrast to the movie’s intent of being a tear-jerker. Hallstrom did a good job overall of allowing viewers to understand what Bailey learned with each life he experienced. One of the things I wish Hallstrom did differently was to make the actors a little more captivating. I felt they should have made a larger impact on the story that they actually did.

I would definitely recommend this movie to dog-lovers and people who like animals in general. It is a heartwarming story that will not leave dry eye in the audience. A Dog’s Purpose is an emotional roller coaster that will make you both laugh and cry. I would rate this movie an 8/10. Bring your tissues!