Life on a Leash - a movie review

I prevailed on my daughter, Pam, to write a review of a recent DVD that was sent to me. Pam is a much more seasoned movie watcher than I am and far more knowledgeable of (and sympathetic to) Indie movies.

Life on a Leash. Stella is 30-something and brand-new to Los Angeles, with a so-so apartment, a married lover, a dead-end job at an art gallery, no friends, no companions - even her paintings seem permanently stuck in the blue period. It's not clear why Stella moved to Los Angeles, but now that she's here, she has no idea how to make a life for herself.

One day Stella's car gets a flat. As she stands on the sidewalk in confusion, a guy comes over and stares at her boots. Before he gets around to mugging her, a stray dog wanders in front of Stella. The guy takes one look and runs away. That's when Stella's life is turned upside-down.

So begins Life on a Leash, a comedy by Susan di Rende. Di Rende is one of the founders of Broad Humor, an L.A. comedy film festival for women. Though this movie was filmed in 2003, it premiered at Broad Humor in 2007 as part of the festival's Legacy Project. In Life on a Leash, di Rende tells a light-hearted tale about a woman who finds herself because she finds a dog.

Stella, who is not a dog person, feels sorry for the stray that rescued her. Feeling that she owes him one, she takes him home, names him Kong, (over) feeds him and basically conforms to his every doggie need before it occurs to her she should have driven him to the pound like a sensible person.

Instead, Stella learns that being in the company of a friendly dog opens up a new world. Neighbors begin to chat with her whenever she walks Kong. Sales pick up at the art gallery just because the dog is present. And at the dog park, Stella finally begins to make friends. It takes Stella a long time (a long, LONG time) to reinvent her life, but as humankind has known since Cro Magnon days, when a dog chooses to live in your cave, things have a nice way of working out.

It's an amateur movie filmed with one video camera (right down to that one little microphone on the front), which made it hard to hear many of the finer points. We gave this film props for snappy dialogue, and the dog humor was right on. But it had many strong plot lines, and we lost the train of the story a number of times. None of us was sure which story line to follow. In real life, you have to sort out for yourself the myriad crap that happens all at the same time, but in a 90 minute movie, it'd be helpful to have one main storyline to follow. My favorite storyline was "Kong helps Stella get rid of her boyfriend", but my husband's was "Stella pulls off a daring dog rescue."

And many questions were left unanswered. Why DID Stella move to Los Angeles in the first place? (If it was to get away from those awful-sounding parents on her answering machine, I can understand, but we'll never know.) Is Stella an aspiring artist, or does she just own lots of paints? Did that one guy really want to mug her, or just admire her boots? And why did the homeless boy who lived in the alley have such clean clothes? But as I say, there was enough humor and heart to Life on a Leash to make it memorable and well worth our time.

Comments

[jackie]

I'll have to remember it and check it out..i love indi movies...

[Jean]

And the line that's best in this review is the one about it being a tale about a woman who finds herself because she finds a dog. Animals can do that for a person, can't they.

Levi's mom

[Saint Lover]

Sounds like something I should see. I had never heard of it before.

[Jimmy]

I've never heard of it before, but "Life on a Leash" sounds like it beats "Life on a Shock-collar" hands down!

[Col]

I tend to enjoy any movie with a dog as a lead character... I will be checking out this one at the video store. Thanks for the heads up. :-)

[gus louie and callie]

What a wonderful story. Great how dogs can turn ones life around...

Big Sloppy Kisses
Gus, Louie and Callie

[cube]

I think I'd emphasize the dog's role in Stella getting her groove back. Dogs make everything better (so do cats, but you didn't hear that from me) ;-)

[Hudson and Mary Jo]

I can't wait to see our copy of it. The movie sounds wonderful and your review was fabulous. We've been remodeling a kitchen and haven't seen our way out for a few days now.

[Lynn Sinclair]

"It takes Stella a long time (a long, LONG time)"

This line kind of tells me all I need to know about that movie.

[Lindsay]

Ha, I usually like all dog movies. Maybe I'll check this one out sometime. I hadn't even heard of it so thanks for the review.