Amazon.com video review:
Simultaneously elegiac and raw, this uneven--but
unforgettable--tearjerker tells the story of Ingemar, a 12-year-old
working-class Swedish boy sent to live with his childless aunt and
uncle in a country village when his mother falls ill. Beginning with
several representations of the most savage, unsentimental domestic
intensity imaginable (interplay between a sick parent and loving child
has never looked anywhere near as explosive), My Life as a Dog
wisely doesn't attempt to maintain that level of danger; rather, the
change in locale to rural Sweden is accompanied by a slackening of
pace and a whimsical breeziness. Nevertheless, the tragic condition
of Ingemar's mother (and later, the indeterminate fate of Sickan, his
beloved dog, consigned to a kennel) hovers over the narrative with a
gripping portentousness. At times, director Lasse Hallström
misplaces the rhythm, and the film threatens to degenerate into a
series of rustic vignettes; luckily, Ingemar's relationship with
Gunnar, the jocular yet somewhat sinister uncle who essentially adopts
him, carries a fascinating charge. In Swedish, with subtitles. This
was later rewritten, whether intentionally or not, by Spike Lee, who
changed the gender of the child, set the story in New York City, added
a 1970s soul soundtrack, and called it Crooklyn. --Miles
Bethany
