Heart Of The Beast may not tell a new story, but its old-fashioned storytelling makes these familiar elements work well enough for a heartfelt drama, notes Mayur Sanap.
Key Points
- Brad Pitt and David Ayer reunite after Fury for Heart of the Beast.
- The survival story feels familiar, but the relationship between the man and his dog keeps it engaging.
- Brad Pitt keeps his superstar persona in the background as he plays a weathered soldier.
‘Quite a critter you have got,’ a stranger tells Brad Pitt’s weathered soldier James in Heart Of The Beast, admiring his gorgeous German Shephard.
James and his canine companion named Odin are deep in the Alaskan wilderness on a camping getaway. But Odin is no ordinary pet. He has a prosthetic leg and dentures, and his recurring nightmares hint at the troubled past he shares with James. It soon becomes clear that Odin is a former military dog, who served alongside James in a war-torn land, where the two formed a deep bond before retiring from military service.
The setup initially recalls War Dog: A Soldier’s Best Friend, the 2017 HBO documentary about the unlikely bond between soldiers and their canine partners.
Heart of the Beast then takes a sharp dramatic turn.
The leisurely trip turns into a fight for survival after a fatal plane crash leaves James and Odin stranded in the cold and deadly wilderness.
Familiar Survival Story
There are shades of Liam Neeson’s The Grey here, but this time, the man at the centre of the ordeal has a fierce four-legged partner by his side.
Director David Ayer, who is reuniting with Pitt after the war drama Fury, draws a nice parallel to their earlier film. Pitt’s James feels like the same battle-hardened man at different point in his life, and this backstory feels like it belongs to the same universe. And even though Heart of the Beast is not a continuation of Fury, it feels like a companion piece to the 2014 war drama.
The film’s biggest weakness, however, is also its most obvious one. There’s very little here to surprise us in terms of drama or themes, and this sense of familiarity often gets in the way.
You can often see where the drama is headed. We have seen plane crashes (Lost), hostile wilderness (The Revenant) and desperate fights for survival (Charlize Theron’s recent Netflix thriller, Apex). But to Ayer’s credit, these familiar ingredients are put together with enough conviction to work.
The biggest reason is the relationship between the man and his dog.
There is genuine warmth in their bond without the film tipping into the sappy territory of something like Arthur The King. The film builds a convincing relationship between James and Odin, which becomes the emotional core of this survival drama. The title also fits for both protagonists, Pitt’s hardened soldier and his canine friend, who have both been shaped by their past experiences.
It’s this strong central dynamic that makes you overlook some of the story’s predictable turns.
The nail-biting moments keep the film moving as the two protagonists face one hurdle after another. The plane crash is handled with such force that it makes you hold your breath, while the wolf attack makes for a tense sequence. Then, at one point, an almost unrecognisable J K Simmons pops up in a cameo and gives the film one its most affecting moments (I had to peer closely to make sure it was really him).
The patchy CGI can be distracting at places, though.
It works well enough in several sequences, but there are patches where the effects look noticeably artificial. The wild animal sequences, in particular, feel conspicuously synthetic and briefly take you out of the film.
Brad Pitt Keeps It Real
I liked that Brad Pitt is not presented as the swashbuckling superstar we saw in F1.
Here, he looks properly weathered. The wrinkles are there. So are the greys and scars. He even allows himself a tear or two. His James looks like a man who has lived through experiences rather than a Hollywood hero who has simply been made to look rough for a role.
At a time when many leading men of his generation still get packaged as ageless action heroes, there is something refreshing about seeing Pitt embrace a character who looks every bit of his years.
As for his canine co-star, the dog work with Odin is impressively smooth. His reactions to Pitt, movement through the action and chemistry with him feel remarkably natural, rather than pieced together through careful cuts that we often see in films like this.
Overall, Heart Of The Beast may not tell a new story, but its old-fashioned storytelling makes these familiar elements work well enough for a heartfelt drama. It is a different kind of Brad Pitt vehicle too, where the film lets the character take centre stage rather than the superstar playing him.
And if you are a dog lover, it’s hard not to fall for Odin, who makes a memorable addition to cinema’s great on-screen dogs.
Fair warning: Keep the tissues handy!
Heart Of The Beast Review Rediff Rating:
