This film starts out as a dark comedy but about halfway through it turns on the sentimentality. Story is about a Los Angeles playwright that is in production with his new play and is having a terrible time with re-writes. Kenneth Branagh plays Peter McGowan and along with his play he and his wife Melanie (Robin Wright Penn) are trying to conceive a child and he is having difficulty with that also. Peter chain smokes and is not to crazy about kids but he is introduced to his new neighbors daughter Amy (Suzi Hofrichter) who has cerebral palsy. Melanie's mother Edna (Lynn Redgrave) is suffering from advanced senility and lives with them and Peter is having a difficult time concentrating on his play. And he also has a difficult time sleeping at night because his neighbors dog keeps barking so Peter goes for midnight walks and meets a man from England (Jared Harris) that has been telling everyone that he is Peter McGowan when in fact he's just an obsessed fan. This film is directed by Michael Kalesniko who wrote the screenplay for "Private Parts" and he displays a knack for showing the struggles of a writer but aside from that this is a film that meanders until it eventually wears itself out. Redgrave seems completely wasted as the senile mother of Penn. She has one effective scene with Branagh as she lies in bed but other than that her role is relegated to wandering about their home in a trance. Penn plays her role rather straight forward but she displays real charm that I think she's never really shown before on screen. Not a complicated part but she gives it her all. The film starts out with showing all of Peters quirks and difficulties but once that is done the film wanders and meanders until its reduced to Peter getting very sentimental over his neighbor Amy. Branagh is believable as a writer but all the events that go on around him are not.
Review of How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog
