And the final sequences, depicting Buck’s inevitably succumbing to the call of the wild and bonding with a pack of timber wolves, are moving, even if the animals are CGI-created. Particularly fun are the scenes in which Buck becomes part of a mail-delivering sled dog team led by a French-Canadian couple enjoyably played by Omar Sy and Cara Gee.
Running a mere 100 minutes, the film certainly moves briskly enough, and it looks terrific, thanks to the handsome cinematography by two-time Oscar-winner Janusz Kaminski. (Unable to resist any anthropomorphism, the film has Buck repeatedly trying to take away Thornton’s booze, like a canine AA sponsor.) Seeming more invested onscreen than he’s been in a while, Ford infuses his typically understated performance with a moving emotional depth that’s the best thing in the film, although the fact that he narrates the story as well (from Buck’s perspective, no less) is more reflective of his star power than storytelling logic. The veteran actor delivers a sensitive turn as the kindly Thornton, who still grieves the death of his son and subsequent split from his wife and nurses his sorrow with alcohol. Here, Hal is transformed into a snarling villain who bedevils Buck and Thornton to the very end, with the normally reliable Stevens encouraged to deliver the sort of moustache-twirling Snidely Whiplash turn that makes Hal seem like an animated character himself.įortunately, Ford, sporting a burly white beard, is on hand to lend some nuance to the proceedings. In the original novel, they, along with Mercedes’ husband Charles (Colin Woodell), wind up drowning. In the early scenes depicting Buck’s spoiled life in the household of a prosperous family headed by Judge Miller (Bradley Whitford, in little more than a cameo), he wreaks the sort of slapstick havoc that would have caused Beethoven to hang his head in shame.Ī significant plot element involves Buck falling under the temporary ownership of the siblings Hal (Dan Stevens) and Mercedes (Karen Gillan), the former foolishly insisting that Buck lead a pack of dogs over a frozen river despite the fact that the ice is melting. But more discerning viewers will wince at how everything has been exaggerated to comic proportions, both intentional and not. None of this may matter to the young audiences to whom the pic is obviously aimed. 'Indiana Jones 5' Will Begin Filming This Summer, Harrison Ford Says
THE CALL OF THE WILD HOW TO
It’s not surprising that the film marks the live-action debut of director Chris Sanders, whose previous credits include Lilo & Stitch, How to Train Your Dragon and The Croods. Such is also the case with the many other dogs and other animals shown, giving this Call of the Wild a similar feel to such recent Disney photorealistic animated films as The Jungle Book and The Lion King. In a blow to animal employment in the acting profession, Buck, who boasts the vast majority of the onscreen time, is played not by one or more actual dogs but rather Terry Notary, a very human former Cirque du Soleil performer who delivers a motion-capture performance. Such, unfortunately, is not the case with the latest version, starring Harrison Ford as the good-hearted prospector John Thornton, who forms a bond during the Yukon Gold Rush with a St. All of these films had at least one thing in common: They starred a real damn dog. Cinematic treatments continued in the 1930s with an adaptation starring Clark Gable and Loretta Young, and subsequent versions had lead actors that included Charlton Heston and Rutger Hauer.
THE CALL OF THE WILD MOVIE
There have been movie adaptations of Jack London’s classic 1903 novel The Call of the Wild dating as far back as a silent 1923 version.
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