Buck, a powerful dog, half St. Bernard and half sheepdog, lives on Judge Miller’s estate in California’s Santa Clara Valley. He leads a comfortable life there, but it comes to an end when men discover gold in the Klondike region of Canada and a great demand arises for strong dogs to pull sleds.
Buck, the St. Bernard/Scotch Shepherd has a big problem, most of which is his size. The rest of it is his ego. When Buck’s size and ego start becoming a major issue, everyone except Buck knows that he has outgrown the modest surroundings at his California home and when his owner can no longer justify his cantankerous existence, they have to part ways. In the midst of Buck’s transition, he is stolen by thieves who think they can make a lot of money from the sale of him and when that doesn’t work out, he ends up being picked up by a mail delivery service that is run by a dog-sledding team. Around the same time, John Thornton (Harrison Ford) is in the process of reinventing himself after he and his wife have parted ways due to him not being able to move on after the death of a child. He decides to move across the other end of the continent and winds up in the Alaskan Yukon during the 1890s gold rush. For no apparent reason, he and Buck’s paths cross a few times and when the Mail Service team is put out of business by modern technology, Buck and John’s life mesh and they become life partners. The comfort they provide to one another can only be described as a match for high-level toxicity, yet each is no longer searching for his life’s purpose as they have found it in one another.
This film, which is based on the novel by Jack London that was originally published in 1903, has had several remakes over the years. The CGI used in this film to enhance Buck’s size as well as his personality is both a hit and a miss. While the imagery of the sledding over the Alaskan hilltops and valleys is incredible, at times, Buck’s super-animated, humanlike reactions reach a bit too far for normalcy. There are endearing parts, however, which shows how Buck’s tenacity has led him from being the big and goofy St. Bernard who is in way over his head as he tries to keep up with his dog-sledding duties, to invariably becoming the leader of the pack when he has to take over the pack and lead his team out of the wilderness. The backdrop of the small towns with its townspeople being a bit naïve, allows John’s personality to rise and fall as he deals with past demons, a life of regrets and a drinking problem. Buck’s inherent nature of wanting to fit in, speaks volumes as he socializes with the wolves, who are dominant and protective in the wilderness and yet welcoming when Buck has proven to have their best interest at heart.
While the film is highly adventurous with bits of refrained humor, the weight that carries the film is the ability to transform characters from a negative environment into a welcoming and intrinsically diverse culture that allows its participants to be their best selves in spite of their own flaws. Director Chris Sanders does a great job in the coordination of graphics and roles in order to produce relationships that resolved issues out of necessity and instinct and put it in a format that is relatable to both adults and kids alike. While the film is over the top in its imagery and projections, it comes right back down to earth when finding levels of compatibility for the estranged.
In Theaters Friday, February 21st
