SLEEPING DOGS LIFE Reviewed by Harvey S. Karten
Roadside Attractions/ Samuel Goldwyn Films
Grade: C+
Directed by: Bobcat Goldthwait
Written By: Bobcat Goldthwait
Cast: Melinda Page Hamilton, Bryce Johnson, Colby French,
Geoff Pierson, Jack Plotnick
Screened at: Review 1, NYC, 8/15/06
Opens: September 29, 2006 This movie could have been subtitled “Keeping Mum,” but since that title is already taken this year, Bobcat Goldthwait’s choice, an insight into honesty, has resonance. When Mr. Flintwich in Charles Dickens’s “Little Dorritt” said, “Let sleeping dogs lie, “ he meant that old conflicts and embarrassments should slide. Bring them up again at your own peril. Too bad Amy (Meldina Page Hamilton) is unfamiliar with the quote, though if the book she was reading when she was 18 years of age was “Little Dorritt,” we can understand how her boredom led her to commit a gross, though not harmful, act. Bob Goldthwait, who wrote and directs this piece, shifts regularly from comedy to drama with emphasis on the former as he toys with the adage “let sleeping dogs lie.” While most of us can agree that a little lie now and then told to your boss or parents is justified, Goldthwait wonders whether absolute honesty is best policy when dealing with intimate friends and lovers. Two of the characters in the story, John (Bryce Johnson) and Ed (Colby French) insist that for the preservation of an intimate relationship, it’s necessary to be brutally honest, even in dredging up embarrassments of the past. How wrong they prove to be. Whether you’ve just met someone or have close ties for decades with another, you’d best keep some things secret. The story’s center, Amy, is lonely and bored as any 18-year-old reading a book may be. Seeing her dog lying on his stomach, she services the happy creature, and we don’t mean by licking his face. When her lover, John, offers a game, that they should tell the other the grossest thing they’ve ever done, Amy at first resists, but after hearing how John ate a semen-filled cookie, she relates the scenario with the dog. After hearing surprising revelations by John’s parents (Geoff Pierson and Bonita Friedericy), John and Amy decide whether they are truly made for each other, a notion furthered by Amy’s friendship with fellow grade-school teacher Ed (Colby French). The tale has the advantage of teaching all of us in the audience a lesson that some may never have learned: that sometimes it’s best to keep the lips tightly zipped. But Ian S. Takahashi’s camera work comes close to sinking the movie. He photographs virtually every scene close-up with a wide-angle lens, a poor choice particularly when this low-budget production requires a seedy, vidcam look. Ms. Hamilton, whose publicist has not taken the trouble to post a picture or a bio on the Internet Movie Database, is appealing in a peas-and-carrots manner but fails to generate sparks with the actors or, presumably, with her audience. Rated R. 89 minutes 2006 by Harvey Karten
harveycritic@cs.com Member: NY Film Critics Online | 
