“The Call of the Wild,” Jack London’s gripping 1903 novel, tells the story of a California house dog who discovers his inner wolf. The latest movie adaptation, directed by Chris Sanders, is, strictly speaking, the saga of a human performer who channels his inner pooch.
Buck, the heroic St. Bernard-Scotch shepherd mix of the book, is now a computer-generated creation. Terry Notary, the movement coach who taught actors how to mimic simians on the recent “Planet of the Apes” films, played the dog on the set before animation, in what the film bills as a “live action reference performance.” On the evidence, he was quite credible; any cries of “good boy!” that ring out from viewers will only seem creepy in retrospect.
Opposite Buck is Harrison Ford, countering the dog’s unnervingly expressive eyes with a disturbingly emotionless voice-over. Ford plays Buck’s eventual master, John Thornton, here a grieving father who has traveled to the Yukon for escape. (Buck buries his bottle of booze.) Pondering this interspecies communion — between a craggy star and a digital dog (based on a man playing a dog) — may prompt howls into an existential void. But as the basis for a family crowd-pleaser, the pairing is often irresistible.
The brutality of London’s tale has been softened, as have some of the creakier cultural attitudes. The courier François, described by London as “swarthy” and a “half-breed,” is now Françoise (Cara Gee), and the climactic attack by Native Americans never happens.
Still, this “Call of the Wild,” however defanged and updated, doesn’t lack for exciting canine brawls or tense rescues from frozen waters. It also doesn’t lack for an almost soothing corniness, as when the postal worker played by Omar Sy explains, “We don’t just carry the mail. We carry lives.”
The Call of the Wild
Rated PG. Animal cruelty. Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes.
Source: Movies - nytimes.com
