– By Cate Marquis –
MEGAN LEAVEY is a true story-based drama about young woman whose close bond with a dog changes both of their lives. Although the young woman is a Marine serving in Iraq and the dog is her bomb-sniffing teammate, this really is a touching dog story rather than a war story.
Director Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s moving but flawed film is based on the true story of Iraq war veteran Megan Leavey and the German Shepherd explosives-detection dog Rex with which she worked. If you are a soft touch for true-story dog tales, this one’s got your number. Director Gabriela Cowperthwaite has previous experience telling a compelling animal story, as the director of BLACK FISH, the award-winning documentary about captive orcas.
Making a nice transition to narrative feature films, Cowperthwaite tells a different kind of “girl and her dog” story, in which the “girl” is actually a troubled young woman Marine struggling to find her footing in life and the dog is no sweet pooch but a military dog with talent for detecting explosives but a terrible temperament. The story follows the two as they meet in basic training and serve in the Iraq War together searching for IEDs and other explosives. The bond they form carries on into civilian life.
Although the film takes place in the early years of the Iraq war, the film has nothing to say, positive or negative, on the war, and focuses solely on Megan and Rex’s story.
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