Ex-soldier James (Brad Pitt) and his dog Odin (Uber) are camping in the Alaskan mountains when a storm cuts their trip short. James suffers a heart attack while flying his plane home, stranding the pair in the wilderness.
In the opening scene of Heart Of The Beast, director David Ayer assures the audience the dog will survive everything we’re about to watch. He literally shows us he’s fine… and then spends the better part of 100 minutes making us stressfully wonder if he was somehow, unforgivably, lying.
The film begins with a van approaching Odin (Uber), a German Shepherd standing alone in the middle of a remote road. As the driver goes to greet him, we flash back to a week earlier. Odin is sitting in a plane’s cockpit beside his owner, James (Brad Pitt), who’s flying them to a camping trip in the Alaskan mountains. Evidently, James and Odin do this a lot and are well trained for it. James is a retired US Army Special Forces officer and Odin his also-retired military working dog. James left service with some scars and a yearning for solitude. Odin left with one prosthetic leg and PTSD-induced nightmares. These two are best friends. When James has a heart attack while trying to fly home, they crash land and are stuck in the middle of nowhere, entirely reliant on each other for survival.
It hits the expected beats satisfyingly and with earned emotion.
From that set-up, Heart Of The Beast takes a largely predictable path, with James and Odin saving each other from roaring rivers, wild animals and various falls, but that’s not a negative. It hits the expected beats satisfyingly and with earned emotion. Ayer, a director whose CV is packed with testosteroney films like End Of Watch, the Pitt-starring Fury and several Jason Statham joints, is more than capable of putting together a solid action-adventure, but here he also knows when to get mushy. Through the many thrilling, very well-paced action sequences he keeps establishing James and Odin’s connection. The script, by Cameron Alexander, divvies up the heroism — for instance, Odin tries to revive James as his heart attack hits; James nurses Odin after the crash, so it’s not just about a very loyal dog. It’s a mutual, very sweet protection.
Aside from two brief supporting roles, one from J.K. Simmons as another adventurer/expository device, this is effectively a two-hander. Or one-hand, one-pawer. It rests on an authentic bond between man and dog. Pitt creates a convincing relationship while effectively talking to himself, and Uber is edited excellently to suggest doggy-thinking. Ayer only very occasionally over-anthropomorphises the dog — that canine nightmare sequence is a bit daft. Mostly, he plays it just cute enough. He makes you root for both to make it and, even though he’s already shown us how it ends, keeps the tension high enough that you still fret about what might happen. If you are a dog-lover, bring tissues. If you are a dog-owner, bring a friend to help you get home.
You couldn’t want much more from a one-man-and-his-dog survival tale. A very good movie about a very good boy.
