Patrick The Pug is a romantic comedy film directed by Mandie Fletcher. The plot sees young woman Sarah (Beattie Edmondson), become stuck with her grandmothers’ pug after she dies. At first Sarah hates the dog as it screws up her life in many ways, but then she learns to love it. Also there is some kind of Bridget Jones esque romantic comedy happening in the background.
So, this is very watchable but also very tame. The issue with it is that it doesn’t seem to know who it is aiming itself at. On the one hand it is playing up all the dumb humour with the dog, which by the end of the film seems to have supernatural powers, that clearly appeals to kids, but then it has all the romantic comedy stuff for grownups. So who is it for?
The humour is passable, and Edmondson is fine in the lead role, that is the thing, nothing is never bad or good with this film everything is just fine. I enjoyed seeing some other famous British faces filling out the cast, though for the most part they only had very small roles, but still somehow managed to out act Edmondson.
There is also a troubling underdone of a white saviour narrative here and there in it, with Sarah appearing to lead her non white students away from a life of crime, which has some not so stellar implications, but hey maybe that was just how I read it.
Overall, this is not good or bad just very meh, but watchable meh. A knock off Bridget Jones with a pug.
Pros.
It is very watchable’
It feels like comforting junk food
Cons.
It isn’t very funny
It feels too safe and as though it doesn’t know who it was made for
The racial undertones
2.5/5
Reviewed by Luke