‘Down Dog’ Review
Stars: Jason Durr, Nick Moran, Orla O’Rourke, Tom Goodman-Hill, Dylan Llewellyn, Naomi Battrick, Poppy Drayton, Chetna Pandya, Neil Toon | Written by Andres Dussan, Simon Nye, Lawrence Tallis | Directed by Andres Dussan
Frank Clayton, a high flying business man in the sex toy industry, a ladies man and a sex addict neglects his family to party all night and live a life of luxury. That is until he receives the worst news possible, he is dying and only has one year left to live. As he faces his inevitable demise, he decides to right the wrongs he has made and turn his life around. But as he tries to connect with his son, he soon learns that in his life, nothing is what it seems.
Down Dog is a film which could have gone in many directions. Starting with so much crude, sexual humour, I saw it turning into a light hearted, very silly and extremely rude comedy. At it points it is exactly that. The sex toy fight in the office is a particularly memorable example of this. However, at other points this film involving sex toys managed to find surprising depth (ba dum tss!) and actually at points can be quite moving. This wide spectrum of experiences was provided by the lead, Jason Durr, who manages to be a lousy, drunk, sex addict at one point, a broken man, weeping for the life he has wasted the next and then a father, trying to earn the love of his child. I can honestly say I did not expect such a good performance coming from this film and I was glad to be mistaken!
I can actually find very little to criticise about this film. Overall it was well acted with no weak points in the cast. Despite some of the jokes being cringe worthy, they can’t help but bring a tiny, childish smile to your face. However, the ending, which I won’t spoil of course, felt like the weakest point in Down Dog. After demonstrating such good storytelling and acting throughout, the ending seems a bit rushed. Not all the loose ends seem to be tied up which to me, as a viewer, I found incredibly annoying. The story does reach a conclusion and for the majority it does provide a satisfying end.
If you think you can look past a not quite fully rounded off story, I think you will find yourself in for a treat when watching Down Dog and I definitely recommend checking it out.
Down Dog is released in the UK on February 13th.
