Year of the dog barks up the right tree. Meet Peggy Spade (Molly Shannon) who has a sweet and simple existence which includes her beloved dog Pencil. He is her best friend and she gets along better with her dog than with men in relationships because dogs don't disappoint you. She has a good job. She has a good friend, Layla (Regina King) who obsesses about her boyfriend and seems to have had too much caffeine. Everything is just enough. She tries to connect with her brother who seems to have everything, including his uber-parental, condescending wife, Bret (Laura Dern dazzles) children, and nice home in the suburbs. 
Then all hell breaks loose. without giving away the movie, little by little Peggy starts to lose her mind, among other things. Peggy has an altercation of sorts with her neighbor Al (John C. Reilly). We soon meet Newt (Peter Sarsgaard) who is a typical animal-activist/new age hippie. Both roles are reversals for each actor. Reilly is known best for portraying kind, meek men. Sarsgaard makes a great bad guy/villain. Both actors are well cast in their roles. In this movie, Al is a hunter and not terribly sensitive, while Newt is an overly sensitive animal loving vegan who opens up a whole new world to Peggy. Then the crazy gets turned up a notch. Molly Shannon carries the film with gentle grace and spot-on comedic timing. It's a smart and clever film that has a very dry borderline dark sense of comedy. In the midst of her story, the very serious issue of pet overpopulation is addressed in a realistic way that is not often seen in film. At the core, YEAR OF THE DOG is a love story and a woman's path to find love. Rating: A very sweet, surprisingly funny comedy, but bring a tissue.
