Director Simon Cellan Jones’ modest drama has three highlights: an extreme sport that’ll likely be new to most viewers, a really cool dog, and the benefit of being inspired by actual events.
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| The kayaking portion their race would be punishing enough under ordinary circumstances, but Leo (Simu Liu, foreground) and Michael (Mark Wahlberg) find it even more taxing with the large, water-soaked Arthur as an additional passenger. |
The sport in question is “adventure racing,” a multidisciplinary team activity that typically involves alternately running, hiking, climbing, bicycling and kayaking over hundreds of miles of wilderness terrain. The clock never stops; competitors must choose if or when to rest — and for how long — while restocking supplies at mandatory “transition areas.” Route decisions and GPS navigation are up to each team.
Mark Wahlberg stars as Michael Light, an Americanized version of Lindnord introduced toward the conclusion of one such competition. He foolishly leads his team to failure during a final leg, when the tide goes out, and strands their kayaks in mud flats. The resulting tirade leaves Michael estranged from teammate Leo (Simu Liu), and one choice image of the messy disaster erupts on social media, subsequently haunting Michael at every turn.
Several years pass, during which Michael continues to train in the gorgeous terrain surrounding the Colorado mountain home he shares with wife Helen (Julie Rylance), who has retired from the sport in order to raise their young daughter. Michael is the epitome of stubborn single-mindedness; he’s determined to take one more shot at the world championship that has eluded him thus far.
(We wonder, at about this point, what Helen and the under-employed Michael are living on. Air?)
Elsewhere, in the Dominican Republic’s capital city, a scruffy brown street dog does his best to survive. As the story proceeds, Cellan Jones frequently cuts back to this bedraggled mutt’s wanderings.
Adventure racing is expensive, and requires sponsorship: a complication, given Michael’s well-known reputation for being bull-headed. He nonetheless perseveres with the executives at the sports firm Broadrail, albeit with conditions: most notably, their insistence that his now-nemesis Leo be on the team.
Cue more snarky posturing between Wahlberg and Liu.
Michael then recruits his remaining team members: Chik (Ali Suliman), a savvy navigator with a talent for finding short cuts; and Olivia (Nathalie Emmanuel), daughter of a mountain-climbing legend. The newly christened Team Broadrail then join scores of other teams at the starting line in the Dominican Republic, for a race that’ll cover 435 miles of dense jungles, viscous mud, bottomless ravines, sheer vertical cliffs and challenging landscapes, amid torrential rains, oppressive heat, snakes and ravenous insects.
(At which point I turned to Constant Companion, and muttered “These people are insane.”)
By coincidence, the aforementioned mutt turns up when Team Broadrail arrives at an early transition area. Michael gives it some meatballs from a food pack, and then presses on with the rest of his team, leaving the dog behind.
He’s surprised to find the same dog at a later transition area, as if waiting for them. Michael dubs him Arthur, due to his regal bearing and intelligent gaze; the dog subsequently follows Team Broadrail during the rest of the race, becoming an unofficial fifth member and Internet sensation, thanks to Leo’s multitude of social media followers.
Arthur — actually a mutt named Ukai — has beautifully soulful eyes and impressive screen presence, thanks to the efforts of veteran dog trainer Mathilde de Cagny. (In another medium, she found and trained the Jack Russell Terrier who played Eddie during 11 seasons of television’s Frasier.) Ukai handles the vast majority of Arthur’s dramatic scenes, with occasional assists from “stunt double dogs” Beau and Hunter.
The extended racing sequences are persuasive, with cinematographer Jacques Jouffret getting down and dirty among the cast members. Wahlberg and Liu look buff enough for this grueling mayhem, and Emmanuel is equally credible as a lithe climber. Suliman, although an engaging actor, seems too fragile for such ongoing, strenuous effort.
Brandt’s dialogue often is clunky and contrived, and he doesn’t give the four primary actors much with which to flesh out their characters. One abrupt revelation by Olivia lands like a lead balloon, as if Emmanuel hadn’t the faintest idea how to deliver the line. (That’s bad directing; she has been much better elsewhere.)
The race terrain and physical demands are riveting enough, as Team Broadrail (forgive me) doggedly tries to improve its standing while heading toward each transition area. But Cellan Jones and Brandt, apparently worried that this wasn’t suitably thrilling, further goosed the drama with ongoing uncertainty concerning Chik’s bum knee, and a calamitously dangerous zip-line sequence (which, although ludicrous, is suspensefully staged).
That said, Cellan Jones and Brandt deserve credit for confounding expectations during an extended third act that’ll have young viewers wringing their hands with concern.
The real-world Arthur’s saga is impressive enough, and it’s a shame the filmmakers felt it necessary to enhance and “Hollywoodize” those events. The actual Lindnord led a Swedish team in Ecuador in November 2014, when they encountered Arthur; the dog then followed them for the rest of the race (as opposed to this script’s dog “mysteriously” waiting for the team at a later transition area).
Even so, this film goes down easily, and likely will encourage curious viewers to further research adventure racing and Arthur; a 2017 ESPN documentary about Lindnord and the pooch is readily available online.
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