Title: A Dogwalker’s Christmas Tale
Year of Release: 2015
Available On: Netflix, October 2017
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Jingle Bells
Luce is a kind of shallow girl who gets roped into walking her neighbor’s dog over Christmas. She maxxed out her parent’s credit cards and just got dumped by a Philosophy minor who thought she was insubstantial. Hank the dog, the great sheepdog equalizer, introduces Luce to Dean, who is studying to be a veterinarian. But it turns out her neighbors are taking away the dog park that the community loves – what will our shallow heroine do!
Sidenote: our friend Patrick Muldoon (who plays the evil developer) is back from Christmastown! Welcome back, Muldoon. You are more suited for this role of the bad guy than love interest. Speaking of the love interest, Dean (Jonathan Bennett), looks quite a bit older than Luce (Lexi Giovagnoli)… turns out they are only 10-years apart in age, which I guess isn’t TOO bad, but c’mon.
I don’t like the story about how Bea used to be fat. “Woman can still eat, she can explode at any moment.” – Ok, fat shamer, I am over you. Co-opting the “Yes We Can” language on behalf of gentrification is… something else.
There is a slightly feminist twist at the end, if you can believe that shit.
