What if toy dog breeds were the best for bomb detection? Yeah, what if instead of a working dog, like a shepherd, retriever or lab, the olfactory senses of your average Shih Tzu or Yorkie were superior? Can’t you just picture it? Middle Eastern desert, gunfire in the distance, an American Humvee stops at a checkpoint and a G.I. climbs out of the back, toting a camo prada purse on his shoulder with a tiny chihuahua poking a head out of the top. The G.I. stops, looks hesitant, reaches into the bag and pulls out the fired Taco Bell spokesman, who is wearing a diamond choke collar and matching camouflage booties. The G.I. brings the long-hair rat to his face, sizes up his quarry and orders, “Patrol, Snookums, patrol!” placing the filth-gopher at his feet. It takes not a single step, but starts yipping incessantly. “Corporal, do we a problem? Did your dog find a bomb?” “Sir! No, sir! He’s just an asshole, sir!”
Megan Leavey (Kate Mara) joined the Marines for lack of purpose. IMHO, this used to be the main reason kids joined the Marines before 9/11, which is when this biography begins. Without goal or purpose, she doesn’t especially make a good Marine and it’s just a matter of time before she gets into trouble and is assigned to kennel corps mop up detail. This is supposed to be a punishment, but suddenly Megan finds purpose in the form of four-legged sociopath Rex, a bomb-sniffing German Shepherd. This is the part where reality and fiction diverge; I doubt very seriously Megan Leavey was a Grade A military stooge and magically transformed into G.I. Jane just because of Rex, but it makes a nice story. Her life now has purpose. She wants to earn working dog patrol.
Somewhere during Megan’s transformation, W’s Iraq War breaks out and it’s now a matter of time before Megan and Rex blindly follow that ghostly chuck wagon to Mesopotamia. Draco Malfoy shows up from the front lines to instruct the raw recruits. He’s been there. He knows. There are things in Iraq you just aren’t prepared for, man. I assume he means basilisks, centaurs, dragons and the like. All I can say is there was a HUGE amount of disappointment in discovering that his own hero dog only had one head.
Bomb-sniffing dogs are incredibly useful in modern warfare, providing they’re well trained and establish good communication with their handlers. I’m not sure I ever bought into Kate Mara, Marine, but it was impossible not to respond to Kate Mara, dog whisperer. This is one of those films, unfortunately, in which you wish animals could act. Rex never struck me as the vicious bone-breaker he’s rumored to be, thus marring the critical relationship in the film.
Well, let let me back up – is this the same German Shepherd from A Dog’s Purpose? The one who had to be near forcibly coerced to jump in the river a fortieth time? Can’t you just see that guy now – “yeah, I took the brief job in A Dog’s Purpose, but I worked it! I was on set sunup to sundown for that one. Jumped in that raging 
torrent darn near 1,000 times. There are no small roles! Now, look, I’m a big star. My agent says there’s a Lassie deal in the works. You think I can’t play a Collie?! I can play a Collie!”
Probably wasn’t the same dog. My brief research on the subject proved inconclusive.
Megan Leavey isn’t a great film, but it’s far superior to A Dog’s Purpose. The sentiment may be muted for Leavey, but it’s genuine and not cynically contrived. I actually do feel for war dogs; I don’t want them to suffer from PTSD any more than our veterans of the (generally) two-legged variety. But chalking this film up to to German Shepherd PTSD, like Max, is selling Megan Leavey short. The gentle relationship here isn’t just gimmick or parlor trick. She needs the dog; the dog needs her as well. Nobody needs A Dog’s Purpose.
“Yes, I know what I charged for the chore
When I said I’d walk Rex to your door
In the park, he was fine
Then your dog found a mine
Now I think I’d like two bucks more.”
Rated PG-13, 116 Minutes
D: Gabriela Cowperthwaite
W: Pamela Gray and Annie Mumolo & Tim Lovestedt
Genre: Taking your human to work day
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Friends of working dogs
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Cat lovers
