Dakota – A Painfully Simple Dog Tale

Kirk Harris’s Dakota delivers a sweet, light-hearted story about a war dog Dakota returning from war-torn Afghanistan to stay with his handler’s family in the US. Following his handler’s death, although against protocol, Dakota is returned to the family. Dakota proves to be a massive help around her new house, especially in helping the mother-daughter duo protect their farm from the evil sheriff who badly craves the land.

Dakota features an eclectic mix of characters. Kate Sanders (Cornish) and her daughter Alex Sanders (Lola Sultan) are a caring family extremely devoted with love and care for each other and who both grapple with their loss in their own way. CJ Malcom (Tim Rozon) helps the two deal with everyday stuff. Meanwhile, the script balances all these varied, supporting and otherwise, characters. It provides at least a moment for each of them to shine. Credit should also be given to the cast for pulling this off, especially given the nature of the plot. Cornish and Sultan portray the mother-daughter duo of Kate and Alex well. Patrick Muldoon, on the other hand, is also convincing as the antagonist, Sheriff Danforth.

At the end of the day, everything in Dakota is super-plain and vanilla. There are no intricacies to this film within its plot or characters. It is predictable right from the start. Hence, all of this makes for a not very engaging 96 minutes. In fact, it feels like a cheap version of Sonic the Hedgehog, which is miles better even with an animated hedgehog instead of a dog. The film could have been much more interesting given three-dimensional characters. The lack of character development and a simple story makes it all that much more tedious and lackluster.

In addition to the simplicity of its screenplay, there is also a lack of novelty in other filmmaking departments. The cinematography captures rural Georgia with somewhat of efficacy, but nothing beyond that grabs viewers’ attention. Nonetheless, some might find the lucid approach suitable, especially for a small-scale production such as this.

In the end, Dakota is a sweet tale of a dog protecting his loved ones but offers nothing beyond that. Though there may be a few chuckles here and there, none of them amount to making this one a worthy ride. That being said, the film is still worth the recommendation for those who log pet films and no one else. It would not hurt to watch this one on PVOD and save a trip to the theatres. The film plays out as more like a TV movie than something theatrical.

still courtesy of Vortex Media

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Where to watch Dakota

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