When packing your family into the car for a trek to Disney’s “Eight Below,” be sure to tuck away some Kleenex. If the sniffles, followed by full-on, breath-catching sobs at a recent preview screening were any indication, then the PG tale of a sled-dog team left to face a winter alone in Antarctica can be rough going.
And that was the adults.
I’ll admit, I’d hoped to use the word “mush” to describe “Eight Below,” directed by Frank Marshall and written by newcomer David DiGilio. But this two-hour saga is hardly sentimental kibble. Call it “Pawing the Void.” Because it turns out there are many ways for a dog to come snout-to-face with death in that frozen expanse.
When geologist Davis McClaren (Bruce Greenwood) arrives at the research outpost, he’s hoping to discover a meteorite field. In an effort to thwart the competition, he’s led guide Jerry Shepard (Paul Walker) to believe they would head in the opposite direction from where McClaren really plans to go. All Jerry’s scout work is wasted. He’s uncertain of the conditions where he, McClaren and his hardworking team of sled dogs will travel.
A reading of the MPAA fine print hints at what’s to come. “Eight Below” is PG “for some peril and brief mild language.” Apt word, “peril.”
Even before the arrival of the storm that will force Jerry to leave behind his beloved team of huskies and malamutes dangers abound. One thing for certain: Had the screenwriter given the massive, uncuddly leopard seal that tries to keep a whale carcass for himself some subtitled dialogue, the movie would have earned a PG-13.
Early in their journey, Jerry complains that he would not have set out if not for his boss.
McClaren’s chiding retort: If it was so unsafe, why did he agree to go along? It’s one of the film’s truest exchanges.
They survive early disaster thanks to the driven loyalty of the dogs. When the team returns to base camp, the dogs’ yaps are met with more glee than Rudolph’s return to the Island of Misfit Toys.
The joy is short-lived when they’re forced to abandon the dogs. The story of Jerry getting back to his dogs is necessary yet less compelling than the plight of Maya, Max, Old Jack, Shadow, Buck, Truman, Dewey and Shorty (played by 16 canine performers).
When the drama of the dogs gets too real, the movie cuts to Jerry’s melancholy quest. Yet as unbearable as it often feels, we yearn for time with the four-legged cast.
One of the last movies Marshall directed was “Alive,” the story of a rugby team stranded in the Andes when their plane crashes. Eventually, the survivors must test the nutritional value of their dead teammates. Maya, Max and their pals never go that far.
Still, if you thought imperiled emperor penguins were heartwrenching, beware of these dogs.
** 1/2 | “Eight Below”
PG for some peril and brief mild language|2 hours|ADVENTURE|Directed by Frank Marshall; written by David Digilio; photography by Don Burgess; starring Paul Walker, Bruce Greenwood, Moon Bloodgood, Jason Biggs and the dogs |Opens today at area theaters.
