Dead dog of a movie?

Rating: 5/10 (18 August 2007)

Well, maybe not quite a dead dog (as in this movie's most talked-about scene), but could've been better. Actually I found this version to an okay time-filler; but nothing more. The Norwegian original this was based on would have to be considered far superior. We've probably seen Al Pacino in the detective role too many times, and Robin Williams, while good, enters the plot much too late.
Now onto the "meat" of the plot (if you'll pardon the expression): the dead dog scene. In the Norwegian original, the detective shoots a LIVE dog to fake the ballistic evidence; this is both an emotionally jarring scene and serves to further alienate the detective from the sympathy of the audience. In this version, Christopher Nolan chooses to plan it safe and have Al Pacino (conveniently) come upon a dead dog, and later return to the corpse to shoot it, then dig the slug out of it's carcass. While not packing the same wallop, this scene IS well done by Nolan and very grisly in it's own right -- we not only see the dog's death-snarl and sightless eye, but we cannot fail to recognize the gruesome fact that digging around in a rotting dog corpse has got to be pretty darn gross! I recall that in the theater, this scene provoked the most gasps from shocked theater-goers. Nolan probably figured showing the shooting of a live dog would alienate American movie patrons from his motion picture....guess Norwegian audiences are made of heartier stock!