Director David Ayer and Brad Pitt team up once again, but instead of showcasing the horrors of war like they did in Fury, they’re offering a much smaller-scale movie in The Heart of the Beast. Pitt may be the lead actor, but it’s his canine co-star who steals the movie in this surprisingly good survival movie.
As mentioned, Pitt stars as James Belmont, a retired Green Beret who ventures into the Alaskan wilderness with Odin, a retired combat German Shepherd who is also James’ best friend. We don’t get too much backstory on James, enough to know that both he and Odin have been through hell while they served, and seem much more content with a solitary life with each other’s company. After their plane crashes in the middle of the wilderness, James and Odin have to trek some 58 miles to the nearest road, braving the elements and wilderness.
Apart from J.K. Simmons appearing early on as a retired prospector, pretty much all of the movie stays with James and Odin. The movie ends up being light on dialogue, but that doesn’t mean the movie is lacking. It ends up saying quite a lot about the unconditional love between man and dog, in a way that doesn’t feel manipulative to the audience. Pitt also gives a really strong performance as James, tapping into that love despite being a man clearly haunted by his past.
But it’s Uber, the main dog playing Odin, who steals the movie. I don’t know how they got such a performance from this animal, but they really succeeded in making Odin a character. Most notable are his eyes, which are extremely expressive, to the point where we know what Odin is thinking in any given scene, and we quickly become very protective of this canine as a result. Like James, Odin has seen hell while working as a combat dog, and suffers from PTSD induced nightmares, which only strengthens the bond between him and James. No one else knows their struggle, but they have each other. Helping Uber bring Odin to life are three other dogs, filling in for stunts and other stand-in shots, and thankfully, the other three canines are Uber’s own sons. When Odin is sad, we fully know it based on how Uber is acting and how the cinematography captures the dog.
The movie is also gorgeously shot, with New Zealand doubling as Alaska. Yes, I thought about Middle-earth more than a few times, but the soaring vistas and natural beauty are hard to ignore and easy to appreciate. There’s some iffy VFX here and there with other animals, but it never took me out of the movie too much. What did take me out more was the infrequent flashbacks to James’ time in the war. They didn’t add anything we couldn’t deduce ourselves and broke up the flow of the survival narrative.
Heart of the Beast doesn’t reinvent the wheel; it taps into tropes and themes we’ve seen done in other dog and/or survival movies before. But it does it with such earnest heart and warmth that it’s hard not to get wrapped up in the wonder of it all. I think this one will make the waterworks flow for dog lovers, but it can make non-dog lovers feel warm and fuzzy thanks to the compassionate relationship shown between Odin and James. For a tight 90-min survival romp featuring nice vistas, the best boy, and a great turn by Pitt, you could do worse with this one.
