Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
‘Eat Pray Bark’ begins with an annoyed politician losing her mind over her adopted dog’s shenanigans around the house, immediately making you wonder if she’s dog-sitting for someone else. If not, why does she even have a dog? She clearly doesn’t seem like a pet person.
Directed by Marco Petry, ‘Eat Pray Bark’ (Original title: Therapie auf vier Pfoten) follows five dog owners as they head to a remote retreat to train their pets with an in-demand trainer named Nodon (Rúrik Gíslason), who looks like a modest-budget cross between a Celtic warrior and Jack Sparrow. Among them is the same politician, Ursula Brandmeier (Alexandra Maria Lara), who is forced to adopt a dog after her popularity tanks with voters due to her anti-dog remarks. She goes to the retreat undercover with a brunette wig, hoping to turn around her image.
The rest of the group is just as eclectic. Doga Gürer plays the flamboyant Ziggy, an overprotective dog dad to Gaga, who spends more time dressing her in cute outfits and carrying her around than paying attention to his husband Helmut (Devid Striesow), a professor whom Gaga seems to dislike. Anna Herrmann is the nervous yet friendly Babs, constantly struggling to keep her overly energetic pet Thorsten under control. Rounding out the group is Kerim Waller as Hakan, a quietly unsettling, introverted man who keeps his German Shepherd, Roxie, permanently muzzled.
Ursula hates dogs, Babs is outmatched by hers, Ziggy treats Gaga like a fashion accessory, and Hakan has some strange grudge against Roxie. ‘Eat Pray Bark’ smartly points out that the real issue isn’t the pets, it’s their owners. Nodon might be a legendary dog trainer, but what he’s really dealing with is a group of humans who are far harder to train.
‘Eat Pray Bark’ asks whether these five strangers can overcome the challenges they face with their pets, and more importantly, themselves. Will Ursula finally come around and see why dogs are often called humans’ best friends? Unfortunately, the film isn’t able to flesh out these angles of its story entertainingly enough.
And just to add a bit of comical suspense to the mix, there’s the matter of Ursula hiding her true identity while being rude to everyone at the retreat, and it seems Nodon has a secret or two of his own. Although it takes some convincing on Rúrik Gíslason’s part to sell himself as a famous trainer who is supposed to have the charms of a Celtic God.
The premise is fun, no doubt, but ‘Eat Pray Bark’ isn’t consistently funny and doesn’t spend enough time on the dogs. With a crisp 90-minute runtime, and nearly six central characters, the script feels overcrowded, leaving none of them memorable enough. Only Babs manages to stand out, thanks to her emotional honesty (she cries a lot) and obvious love for her dog.
Each time the dogs come on screen, they are absolutely adorable, and the Tyrolean mountains serves as stunning background for the film. Overall, this is a decent one-time watch for those looking for something light with pets.
Stream Eat Pray Bark on Netflix.
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