Significant Others

 Two films involving animals and one with regular old humans:

PIG (B) - The latest Nicolas Cage freakout is a touching but often ludicrous tale of a societal dropout on a mission to find his stolen pig. So at least the title is truth in advertising.

Debut writer-director Michael Sarnoski (co-writing with Vanessa Block) has a way of upending expectations -- but only sometimes for the better. Viewers who saw the trailer might be expecting a knockoff of a Liam Neeson revenge flick, but they will either be disappointed or pleasantly surprised. Instead this is more of a plodding odyssey. 

The new voice can be a bit refreshing, but this grimy drama alternates between being painfully predictable (Cage's lines, especially) and wildly inscrutable. A scene straight out of "Fight Club" is wholly unnecessary to the plot, and it comes at the 20-minute mark, providing an off-ramp to viewers who, just, you know, can't even. 

Cage is engaging as Rob, a mountain man in rural Oregon who uses his faithful pig to help dig up truffles that he sells each Thursday to a bro-buyer for a high-end restaurant. But ne'er-do-wells grab the pig and clang Rob in the skull with a cast-iron frying pan. Between that and the inexplicable fisticuffs, Rob will proceed through his old stomping grounds of Portland with a bloodied face, assisted by the bro-buyer, Amir (Alex Wolff). 

The only other cast member to stand out is Adam Arkin, who almost literally sinks his teeth into the role of Amir's more successful and cutthroat father, who might have some key information about the whereabouts of this pig, which is prized by Rob not so much for his hunting skills but his companionship -- because, of course, Rob (this being movieland) is still mourning after the death of his true love, an event that apparently sent him from great acclaim into this Unabomber tailspin.

Sarnoski definitely has an eye and ear for storytelling. This mix of cliche and misdirection is worth sticking around for, even if you might hate yourself a little afterward.

DOG (B-minus) - Speaking of cliches, movies don't get more '60s Disney than a soul-tugging road movie featuring two wounded veterans -- one human (in the sculpted form of Channing Tatum as an Army Ranger) and the other animal (three pups sharing the role of a K-9 hero).

If you watch this and can't predict every plot turn and the story's path right up to its ending, then congratulations on experiencing your first movie. Don't worry, they're not all like this; at least not in the 21st century. Tatum does his moody aw-shucks routine as the ruggedly named Jackson Briggs, who teams up with a dead cohort's canine partner, Lulu, who might as well have been named MacGuffin.

Briggs wants back in action despite his traumatic brain injury, so he makes a deal with his captain:  Briggs will drive the dog to the buddy's funeral, and the captain will make a phone call clearing Briggs for active duty. Fire up the rundown SUV and point it south toward Nogales.

The screenwriters -- Reid Carolin (from "Magic Mike," who also co-directs with Tatum) and newcomer Brett Rodriguez -- have been to script-writing school, and they know that the hero's journey must involve obstacles. First, Lulu is ferocious, and is a destructive travel companion. Second, Briggs needs to make some pit stops, mainly to exorcise his demons. For example, this being a damaged war vet, there needs to be an estranged wife and daughter who happen to live along the way. He also bonds with another vet, Noah (when did Ethan Suplee get so swole?), who adopted Lulu's brother and can offer brotherly guidance to Briggs.

Despite this being quite sappy (and obsequious to the military and its macho fraternity), it does have its moments, and Tatum and the dog can be charming and entertaining together. (And cameos by Jane Adams and Bill Burr (as a disgruntled vet whose now a grunt of a cop) hit the spot.) It really is a lot like a '60s Disney movie. I was surprised to see so many kids in the audience at the screening. Yes, it's a movie about a dog, but it can get dark as hell at times.

UNCLE FRANK (B-minus) - Alan Ball, a long ways from "American Beauty" and TV's "Six Feet Under," dials up this TV movie-of-the-week nostalgia exercise about a young woman in the 1970s getting to know her closeted gay uncle who has been traumatized by his narrow-minded southern family. A few heartfelt performances lift this above the mawkishness that Ball threatened to trap them into.

Sophia Lillis ("It") is always nuanced and engaging as the niece, Beth, and Paul Bettany just barely succeeds in walking a tightrope across misery and moping as Frank, who agrees to take a road trip with Beth from his enlightened existence in New York City back to his backward hometown for the funeral of his brutish father (Stephen Root, stuck in the thankless role of a crude bigot). Peter Macdissi brings humor and heart to the role of Frank's longtime partner.

Ball's overall story is just barely convincing, and he undercuts it with clunky dialogue. He gives Frank a tragic backstory, and you can picture ball slathering Vaseline all over the lens for the flashbacks to Frank's harrowing teenage experience. It's quite a mess at times, but there is a pulse here, and the three leads give it their all to make it passable.