Director: Laetitia Dosch
Writer: Laetitia Dosch, Anne-Sophie Bailly
Stars: Laetitia Dosch, François Damiens, Jean-Pascal Zadi
Synopsis: Avril, a young lawyer, goes to great lengths to save her client, a repeat-offender dog, from capital punishment. This dog helps Avril accept her own human complexity.
Courtroom films, even if the film is a comedy, often have a complexity and drama that is rare for our court rooms in reality. There are grand speeches, weeping testimonies, harrowing witness statements, intrigue, bombshells of surprise information, gasps, and gallery participation. That is what we relate to. The passion of the moment and of justice. Dog on Trial has all of that, but it also has a canine defendant who is confused by the whole affair.
Dog on Trial is a funny movie, but it takes the defense arguments Avril (Laetitia Dosch) makes on behalf of Cosmos (Kodi) very seriously. Laetitia Dosch and co-writer Anne-Sophie Bailly have brought forth in their screenplay a compelling case for a dog sentenced to death for what comes natural to him. The courtroom becomes a fantastic menagerie of humans attempting to explain the psychology and nature of dogs. One of the best scenes is when one expert sets a sound board in front of Cosmos for him to answer questions posed by the judge. This goes surprisingly well as the button Cosmos hits to answer the first test question is coherent. Even the next button for the second test question is apt, but when the judge asks too complicated of a question, the button pushing gets erratic. Then Cosmos is just pushing the buttons for his own pleasure.
While the fun of this film is pure and sweet, the depth of the story is in human relations to dogs. There will be many people who have a shallow reaction to this story, an “aw, so cute,” reaction, but there is more here. The arguments of Roseline Bruckenheimer (Anne Dorval), the prosecutor, are futile because she attempts to equate this dog’s instinct with a human’s amorality. A dog never got drunk and hit its child. A dog doesn’t kill for the thrill. This is an animal and has no morality but the one imparted by biology and nurturing. There are no bad dogs, but there are bad humans who make dogs bad.
There is a feeling Dog on Trial can pull out of your chest, especially if you’re a dog person. It’s an immediate defense of Cosmos because he is a good dog, unfairly made into a pariah. The film delves deeply into the fact that dogs and humans have a kind of bond that is spiritual. Looking into Cosmos’ eyes, makes more than one human in the film see something more to the situation. This film, while very funny, is about the realities of the companionship between our two species. Rarely does the film ever engage in the “magical dog” trope, but keeps Cosmos grounded in the behavior of a real dog.
It’s strange to write, but this is a truly incredible dog performance. Kodi as Cosmos is trained so well that he is effortless in look and behavior. Yes, this performance is very much in the editing, superbly performed by Isabelle Devinck and Suzana Pedro. It’s also in the cinematography by Alexis Kavyrchine and the direction of Dosch. Yet, there is one scene especially that will make you question whether or not Kodi is a performer or just a good mimic. As Marc (Jean-Pascal Zadi) plays with Cosmos out in his pasture, Avril listens to Marc’s explanations of play dynamics. When Marc throws the stick he was tugging on with Cosmos, Cosmos chases after it and with a command, Marc stops him. Cosmos turns, not to run back to Marc, but to stare at him. He stares and it’s a look of disappointment, like Cosmos hoped that Marc wasn’t like the others. Cosmos hoped Marc would never cage him because the two of them developed such a strong rapport. It’s there in the look of Kodi as Cosmos and whether that was Kodi’s reaction in the moment or a different take, it doesn’t matter, it’s effective and seems to have been done with real instinct, not training.
A performance we can gauge on the obvious cognitive abilities of its performer is the great one by Laetitia Dosch. Dosch balances the goofy humor of her character’s inner monologue with the heft of a person who has deeply held convictions about right and wrong. Playing opposite a dog is never an easy feat, but Dosch has the temperament and skill that makes her scenes with Cosmos effortless. She’s funny and fierce. She’s sweet and serious. Dosch is terrific as Avril.
Dog on Trial could have swung for the comedy fences. It could have been a screwball affair with hammy performances from people and pets alike. It could have been overly serious and maudlin, which would have elicited laughter because it’s so atonal to the subject matter. Dog on Trial strikes a terrific balance and finds a near perfect middle that makes you forget the absurdism while marveling at it at the same time. It’s a film that is understanding of the realities in a case like this and while the verdict won’t be spoiled here, you will need some tissues when it’s read on the faces of the humans and dogs in the court. Dog on Trial is a special film that understands our connection to nature and that it should never be taken for granted.
