Best friend. Hero. Marine. Max is all of these, and what’s more, he’s a dog.
“Max” is also a movie, and as a family film mixed with adventure-film intensity, it’s something to woof home about.
You may think you’re looking at a German shepherd, but Max is a Belgian Malinois, a member of the sheep-herding family to be sure. But this is a breed so strong, agile, smart and hard-working that it has become in many corners the “dog of choice” among the military as well as law enforcement.
The movie is a work of fiction, but it is an absolute tribute to the abilities of this breed, as well as all dogs that have served in battle since World War I. That includes more than 3,000 that served in Iraq and Afghanistan, including 26 dogs and 25 handlers killed in those U.S. battles of the past quarter-century.
“Max” is one of those films that you don’t have to be a dog-lover to love. This dog and the emotional connection that he makes — as friend, protector and sniff-em-out detective — makes this a winning story.
The story begins simply enough: Max is the partner of U.S. Marine Kyle Wincott. They work side-by-side as Max enters a Kandahar province village to sense danger, sniff out hidden weapons and keep the peace by engaging with the enemy (read: threaten with teeth bared and attack if needed to protect his Marine handler).
A mission goes wrong immediately following Josh discovering that a fellow Marine in his unit — a buddy from back home — is stealing everything from rifles to rocket-propelled grenades out of the enemy caches they’re uncovering.
Josh is killed in an ensuing firefight, and Max is traumatized by his handler’s death, proving a point that this brand of Marine can suffer post-traumatic stress disorder just like any human.
When Max returns to the U.S. for his handler’s funeral, this is the first of multiple times in this film that some filmgoers, including this one, will find they have something in their eye. They’re called tears.
Unstable and about to be “put down,” Max makes a connection to Josh’s younger brother, Justin, a restless teen for whom caring for what he calls a “psycho dog” is the last thing he desires.
Writer-directior Boaz Yakin, who brought audiences to their feet with “Remember the Titans,” one of the most rousing football movies ever made in that category’s long genre, still knows how to wrench the emotions of a crowd.
He also does the unexpected in “Max” with the help of Josh Wiggins, the supremely talented young actor who plays the angry young man that is Justin. This could easily have been another simplistic animal story, with boy-meets-dog and everything is made all better, after-school special style.
Instead, “Max” becomes a more complex film. It can often be an intense thriller as the weapons-stashing “old friend” Marine returns home, too, and Justin and Max essentially become partners in a mystery that puts them in danger several times.
The film wraps into this a solid subplot about friendship with his story-embellishing best pal that produces some comedic relief, a small romance for Justin with the friend’s cousin and a father-and-son relationship that is more complex than expected with fine work from Thomas Haden Church as the dad.
I deeply enjoyed seeing so many young teens riding bicycles as a big part of “how I spent my summer” and especially on the kids’ homemade dirt-bike course, incorporating wooden ramps with hilly paths in a forest, pedaling full-speed and Max galloping side-by-side.
A boy and his dog and a blast of summer adventure — it doesn’t get much better than that.
Yes, the film is emotionally manipulative on many accounts, especially setting up the believed-to-be Marine friend as villain, and through the family bond being stretched to ridiculous degrees, with Lauren Graham (TV’s “Parenthood”) in way too much of a weepy mode as Justin’s mother.
Although the events of the mystery are predictable, they are never less than exciting, thanks to naturalistic actors like Wiggins, a newcomer who’s just the right kind of curt with his dad and just the right kind of embarrassed with his buddy’s cousin (he can barely look at her as he talks to her, a believable first-crush shyness).
He’s also just the right kind of hesitant of Max’s aggressive behavior before learning how to establish a sense of trust with this dog, and then building a similar relationship with his parents, as well.
Five Belgian Malinois dogs were used to portray Max in the film, and the result is an impressive authenticity of how this breed demonstrates its work ethic and intelligence during many edge-of-your-seat scenes of peril as well as the dog’s steadfast loyalty.
Max is a four-legged hero, and “Max” is a winner worthy of a rating of three out of four paws.
Michael Smith 918-581-8479
Josh Wiggins stars in “Max,” the story of a Belgian Malinois military service dog who returns to the states after his handler is killed overseas. WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT/Courtesy
‘Max’
Cast: Josh Wiggins, Thomas Haden Church, Lauren Graham, Mia Xitlali, Dejon LaQuake, Luke Kleintank
Running time: 1 hour, 51 minutes
Rated: PG (action violence, peril, brief language and some thematic elements)
Quality: 3 stars (on a scale of zero to four stars)
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