by John Tillyard, Contributing Writer
In Heart of the Beast, Brad Pitt teams up with a dog (played by four dogs) and a lot of amazing scenery to battle against nature for a little over an hour and a half. There isn’t really much more to this movie than that. It plays all the hits of the typical survival story: getting stranded, escaping or fighting wild animals, the tense sequence where a single wrong move could mean the end for our heroes, and the emotional ending. The main difference is that one of the heroes is a dog.
I quite enjoyed the very simplest setup of the story here: other than Pitt and the dog, only two other characters show up throughout the entire movie. There isn’t much backstory about Pitt or his dog, or where they consider home. All you really need to know is that they have been through a lot already and want to get home.
Director David Ayer does a great job of shooting the scenery, and the effects on the animals are fairly solid. He brings real emotion to several scenes as he shows the bond between the dog and the main character, making the ending far more impactful. The emotions and sadness are maybe played on a little too thick in places, but only a little; I never felt like throwing up or anything. It’s the first David Ayer movie I’ve seen that feels like it was fueled by heart rather than adrenaline or testosterone.
Rating: Liked It
Heart of the Beast is currently playing in theaters.
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