Solo (Giovanni Ribisi) isn’t ready to move on. He’s finished a full year of therapy and cannot continue because he simply has no money. He’s squandered everything he had and is now indebted to others. He tries to find his creative side and begin writing again but he can’t. He struggles to find happiness and this is only amplified by his own conclusion that everyone else around him is. His psychiatrist, Dr. Nourmand (Don Cheadle), suggests he get a pet and Solo clearly doesn’t get along with his new four-legged partner. Calling him a four-legged friend would be misleading, for now.
Solo runs into Lola (Lynn Collins) at a dog park and when her dog attacks his he has to borrow money to pay the bill from her. She’s give him her address at work so he can bring the money to pay her back. If it were his lucky day he would be overjoyed to find out that Lola works as a stripper but he still doesn’t have the money to pay her back. Will Solo ever find happiness and will it happen with Lola or his yet to be named dog? The Dog Problem is the second feature film from actor cum writer/director Scott Caan. It is a very funny story of one’s pursuit of happiness as he tries to sort through what brings everyone else theirs.
Ribisi is rock solid in this film. And that should come as no surprise to anyone because he is one of the single best acting talents of his age. Scott Caan completes the trifecta with his role as Casper. His character earns a lot of laughs, which come from his funny script and also great visual comedic moments as well. I’m going to bring in an exception with the characters, Jules and Benny. I understand Benny and the role of the money launderer and I kind of get the role of Jules, rich kid wild child with nothing to do but test the limits of power and manipulation, but they almost don’t fit in this movie. Dare I say it’s almost as if Caan had characters of another film, or past films, that he always wanted to use in a film and had nowhere else to put them? I understand their place in the story but it could have done without as well and we would have been none the wiser. And Mena Suvari is pretty much wasted in this movie. She’s so good. Why this character? Were you looking for something fun to do? Did you owe Caan one? She is simply outshone by Lynn Collins’ Lola who provides the much needed stability between Solo’s erratic behavior and Casper’s erratic… everything else; proving once again that strippers don’t have to be as dumb as the sad sacks that sit in front of them every night. But it is clearly Jimmy the Dog who steals the spotlight from everyone. Any moment with ‘The Bean’ or ‘Spot’, as he is sometimes called, is fantastic.
There were also a very interesting theme about love in the film that really resonated with me. Especially when it comes to avoiding love. Solo pretty much avoided love entirely because it hurts more afterwards than not loving at all. A complete reversal to the cliche 'It's better to have loved than to have not loved at all'. That's a load of bollocks. I wondered more about the Solo character especially when he and Lola are talking about the success of his first book. He told the story of being surrounded by all this fame and fortune and all the time he was miserable. Is that because he didn't find true love through it all? Was everyone surrounding Solo riding on the coattails of his fame and fortune and not loving him trully? The funny thing, and your going to kick yourselves for not coming out to the Imperial last night, is that the after party for The Dog Problem was in the library at the pub. Of course we thought it odd, but as I watched Cann, Ribisi, Suvari walk around the floor talking to everyone I wondered to myself; How do they know? How can they tell the fakers, shakers and takers from the rest? I imagine when you have been in the business of entertainment you can identify them right away.
Caan delivers a funny if not insightful script. He also achieves some marvelous visuals – look for the conversation between Solo and Lola during the late night drive searching for his dog. And should this project be picked up for distribution I see appropriate commercial success upon its release.