Courtesy of Paramount Pictures
David Ayer’s “Heart of the Beast” is a serviceable entry in the leading-man-and-his-dog subgenre, though it earns style points for giving Brad Pitt an actual canine to act opposite. Harrison Ford wasn’t so lucky in 2020’s “The Call of the Wild,” where his companion was a CGI creation. There’s a pleasure in seeing Pitt share the screen with an animal who can meet his gaze, interrupt his solitude and occasionally upstage him. Ayer’s film checks nearly every box of the man-and-his-dog survival movie, and it knows exactly where to tug at your heart. What keeps it going is the bond at its center, even when the story around that bond grows predictable.
Pitt reunites with his “Fury” director as James Belmont, a retired Army Special Forces veteran who has settled into the sort of life these movies reserve for men carrying more pain than they care to discuss. He’s gruff, tattooed and sparing with words; his closest companion is Odin, a former combat dog with his own scars. Played primarily by a German shepherd named Uber, Odin has a prosthetic leg, titanium teeth and PTSD that sometimes sends him howling awake in the middle of the night. James understands him better than he understands most people, which may be why neither seems particularly eager for anyone else’s company.
James flies them to a remote stretch of Alaska for an extended camping trip, where he raises a Belgian beer to his fallen comrades and enjoys being far away from civilization. When a canoeing stranger named Watson, played briefly by J.K. Simmons, comes through and offers a handshake, James can barely be bothered to return it. He is, after all, a traumatized capital-M MAN. The encounter is a funny little display of the archetype Pitt is playing, but it also makes clear just how thoroughly James has built his life around Odin.
Cameron Alexander’s script gives the pair a straightforward route into trouble. After James suffers a heart attack and their plane goes down in a lake, they face a 58-mile trek through the wilderness to reach safety. From there, “Heart of the Beast” moves through the expected hazards: bears, punishing storms and, eventually, a pack of wolves that gives the film its most harrowing sequence. Ayer stages those threats with enough urgency to keep you invested, though they rarely reveal much about James beyond what the opening has already told us.
That leaves Pitt with a fairly narrow character to play, though he gives James the weathered presence the film needs. Odin has the more expressive role, and Uber proves a wonderful screen partner. Watching James care for a dog who has survived his own battles gives the story its emotional weight. Ayer, a filmmaker rarely known for piling on the schmaltz, lets that affection show without pushing every moment toward a tearful payoff.
“Heart of the Beast” isn’t based on a true story, but its closing tribute to military dogs makes clear why James and Odin’s bond matters to Ayer. The film follows a familiar trail, and James never becomes quite as interesting as the dog beside him. Still, Ayer understands that after spending this much time watching the two look after each other, he doesn’t need to manufacture a tragedy to get a response. When the movie ended, I was relieved to have made it through with my emotions intact. Mostly.
HEART OF THE BEAST is now playing in theaters.