On the first day of class they teach every screenwriter the same, cheap trick: if you want the audience to hate a character, have them kick a dog. The theory goes that everyone likes dogs, and nobody likes to see them suffer. And while that’s largely true – some people would rather watch a dozen teenagers get murdered than hear a single dog whimper (at least as far as movies are concerned) – it’s been disproven time and again by a little thing we like to call “society.”
If you love dogs, and can’t stand to watch a dog suffer even momentarily, stay the hell away from White God. Kornél Mundruczó’s new drama tells the story of a lovable mutt named Hagen, who is abandoned by his family and winds up wandering from one part of Hell to another. Cruel dog catchers, vicious dog fighters, and a patriarch who just can’t hide his apathy all take a pound of flesh from poor Hagen, practically from beginning to end.
For most of White God’s running time, it’s a shocking and undeniably powerful drama. The misery this poor dog endures never seems beyond the realm of possibility, and one version of his fate or another probably befalls many poor canines who have the pitiful misfortune of losing their owner (or of never having one at all). Mundruczó only shies away from the brutality long enough to avoid being brutal himself, but turning the camera away from the beating of a defenseless beast doesn’t mitigate the impact of the moment. We feel for this poor creature, as well we should.
But all of the enormous dramatic impact of this realistic story, and all of the overwhelmingly effective minimalism that Mundruczó uses to put it on camera, sets White God up for a very strange fall. The end of the film takes a jarring right turn, transforming White God into something more akin to Rise of the Planet of the Apes than Homeward Bound (by way of Lars Von Trier). It’s a briefly cathartic but ultimately silly change up, and Mundruczó’s failure to set it up gradually may inspire more giggles than gasps.
There’s another story going on in White God, of a young girl named Lili (Zsófia Psotta) whose father abandoned Hagen in the first place. Kornél Mundruczó’s film draws a disturbing parallel between Lili’s saga, of a girl forced to put away childish things, and Hagen’s descent into, and escape from torment. Misery builds character, perhaps. But by the time hundreds of unwanted dogs race behind her, nipping at her heels, the humanity is almost completely gone. Only the artifice remains. And a mighty drama that could have been an unforgettable experience segues ridiculously into awkward metaphor, and unsuccessful farce.
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and the host of The B-Movies Podcast and The Blue Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
