Hangdog at its core is a movie about a man, his girlfriend and their dog who he fears she loves more than him.
This seems like a simple story about a dog being taken from out front of a Portland, Maine dispensary and the adventure he must take to retrieve the dog before she can find out the dog is missing.
However, the story is deeply rooted in the love a man, Walt, feels for his girlfriend, Wendy, but he struggles to vocalise his emotions.
The movie occurs during a three day trip Wendy takes back to New York for a pitch competition where she must compete for venture capitalist funds to finish her app.
During this trip she leaves the couple’s dog, Tony, in the hands of her anxious and awkward boyfriend, Walt, who recently quit his accounting job at an advertising agency. He said there is no torture greater than working next to the thing you really want to do in life. As he always wanted to work in the arts as a graphic designer.
The couple moved from New York City to Portland, so they can be closer to Wendy’s parents, after her father suffered a heart attack.
Wendy is the founder of a successful startup who is making an app, which is described as the Etsy of sustainable shopping throughout the movie.
Once Wendy leaves for her trip, Walt ventures out of the house for dog food and stumbles upon a dispensary. At this dispensary he ties up Tony to a post. Walt leaves only to discover that the dog has been stolen.
This sets off an adventure around Portland and pushes Walt far out of his comfort zone. This leaves him no choice but to engage with strangers, meet new friends and enemies, as well as explore what both Tony and Wendy really meant to him.
The people Walt meets push him to reexamine his life, his relationship with Wendy and why he’s living in Portland.
The actor who plays Walt, Desmin Borges, describes the plot of the movie at a Q&A session after a pre-screening at the Somerville Theatre on Oct. 16, “It’s a beautiful marriage of people being flawed, and people having issues.”
The movie comes out digitally Oct. 25 and I feel it is worth a watch if you like an emotional rollercoaster and can root for a happy, yet complex ending for both man and dog.
