Review: Dog Gone wants to be charming but is plagued by cheesy dialogue

Stephen Herek must be quite the fan of dogs.

The director decided 101 of them simply weren't enough, and has come back for more with Netflix's new allegedly feel-good movie Dog Gone.

But the 101 Dalmatians director has not managed to deliver another charming canine caper. Sadly, Dog Gone is plagued by terrible dialogue, average actors and implausible behaviours.

The film is based on the real story of Fielding Marshall, who along with his family pulled out all the stops to find his beloved dog Gonker after he went missing on the Appalachian Trail.

Dog Gone is adapted from a book written by Fielding's brother-in-law, Pauls Toutonghi, but there are many things that have been changed.

For starters, the real Gonker went missing in the late 1990s, with no social media to help progress his story and call rescuers to action as is depicted in the movie.

Then there's the addition of a health issue for Fielding, which wasn't present in real life, and a completely unnecessary backstory covering his mother's childhood dog.

Some creative license when bringing a true story to life is expected, but most of these changes seem unnecessary.

The film sees Fielding (here a recent college graduate, in real life, much older) floundering about in life, not sure what to do or how to make a living. He's spending time back home with his parents after graduating, and has brought with him Gonker, a beautiful yellow Labrador.

As expected, the parents don't think this dog is a great idea, but are soon enamoured.

After a few weeks Fielding takes a hike on the nearby Appalachian Trail with Gonker and his college buddy - who has specifically driven up to see him because he sounded down - when the dog takes off after a fox and doesn't return.

Within no time his mum, played by Hallmark movie veteran Kimberly Williams-Paisley, has set up a command centre in the dining room and his dad, played by Rob Lowe, is ready to hit the trail to find Gonker.

Johnny Berchtold plays Fielding, but there's not a lot to the performance. The cheesy dialogue will tell you that he loves and misses his dog, but the acting does not.

Speaking of the cheesy dialogue, here's a line that's supposed to be moving: "Gonker was the only one on the planet who liked me just the way I am."

Fielding spends most of the movie complaining that his father is disappointed and embarrassed by him and his friends all think he's a loser, which is ridiculous because they all uproot their lives at the drop of a hat to help find his dog. In fact, people in their town and those along the trail go above and beyond to spread the word and find the lost dog. That aspect of the film is actually kind of lovely, and does accurately show just how passionate dog people are about their pets. But just when you think you might find yourself getting swept up in the story, some more terrible dialogue comes along and you're pulled rudely back to reality.

An angry bikie type tells Fielding he needs to forgive himself for losing his dog. Another random traveller tells the father, "At the end of the day we're all walking the trail, it's just some of us wanna wait a bit longer to step off."

The undoubted highlight of the film is the credits, where cast and crew are pictured with their own dogs. That's quite nice.