I admit it, I'm a sentimentalist. I cried like a baby at my own wedding while my wife looked on in bemusement. I weep at favourite songs or pieces of music and shed tears freely at emotionally charged movies. It was my wife's brother who recommended we watch this movie during lockdown and I really should have read the signs. First off it's a Disney movie, secondly it's about a brave dog ...and right from these two facts, I knew I was going to struggle to get through it dry-eyed.
And so it proved. With films like this, for me anyway, critical faculties are suspended and you just want it all to end happily so that you don't have to hide your feelings anymore. I do know that Willem Dafoe and Julianne Nicholson were excellent in their parts as the slightly mismatched couple who set up home in the remote, frozen, northernmost part of America. He's the local "mush-man" responsible for trekking his team of husky dogs over unforgiving terrain for the benefit of the local community while she provides all the back-up back home he needs for them both to keep their operation going.
Comes a catastrophic diphtheria outbreak to the town, especially targeting young children and the need to requisition urgent medical supplies from some 500 miles or so away, but with an impending spell of bad weather knocking out the possible use of aeroplane or rail transport, the only way to go get the job done is for Dafoe and his dogs to undertake a hazardous cross-country trek like no other to collect the vaccines and get them to the hospital to help save the kids' lives.
With a storyline given added topicality and piquancy by the devastating current Covid-19 virus outbreak, this was a thrilling and moving race against time, taking on the elements and indeed the odds, the effort spearheaded by crusty old Dafoe and his pack, especially Togo the pack-leading dog. Early on we're fed the back story of how Togo came into the couple's possession and how the dog's irrepressible desire to accompany Dafoe on his travels sees him twice unsuccessfully try to offload the dog to new owners, only for Togo to somehow find a way to break free and return back home from whence he came, Finally Dafoe is persuaded by the dog's errr... doggedness, to reluctantly road-test the apparently under-sized dog and eventually concede that its courage and stamina outweigh any physical disadvantages it may have.
We see the pack endure unbelievable dangers in their epic mission, Togo literally pulling out all the stops to navigate the team over breaking ice-floes, slog up snow-bound foot-hills and even save the group from certain doom near the end, in a particularly amazing show of love, strength and fortitude by the dog.
It's a Disney film so there's probably a fair bit of dramatic licence taken with the story but you'll have a good idea how it ends. The landscapes, making great use of drone shots on-high are frequently eye-catching and there's was a plaintive lonesome-violin soundtrack which further set the scene. I don't know how much of the cinematography was C-Gen assisted but the actions of the dogs and Togo in particular, looked natural to me.
Anyway I got through to the end with some dust in my eyes and immediately afterwards felt the need to hug our own dog of over ten years in sympathy and appreciation for what I'd just seen.
This one's for you, Flip.
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