How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog (Mad Dogs & Englishmen) poster & wallpaper

David Krumholtz, Jared Harris, Johnathon Schaech

Shy, chain-smoking, insomniac Peter McGowan is an L.A. playwright with a string of hits that preceded his current ten years of failed productions. His mother-in-law is sinking into senility, a strange...( read more  read more... )r is meandering the neighborhood claiming to be him, neighbors have a new dog that barks all night; his wife wants to have a child, and he does not: he's become impotent. He's working on a new play when a single mom moves in next door with her 8-year-old daughter. His wife immediately invites the girl into the McGowan household. Will this child stir Peter's paternal feelings? Will she also help him get his dialogue right? And what of his doppelganger and the neighbor's dog?

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71% liked it

279 ratings

Critics

57% liked it

30 critics

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Directed by: Michael Kalesniko

Release Date: February 1, 2002

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DVD Release Date: September 2, 2003

Stats: 89 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (89)

  • jamestalkalot
    July 15, 2008
    jamestalkalot
    I've had this sitting in my dvd collection for a long time but did not know what the hell it was (I got it free from a newspaper)

    Anyway, I put it on to give it a bash and I'm glad I did because it was ace.

    Kenneth Branagh is very funny in this , the wee girl in it was also...( read more) ace as is the rest of the cast. Very funny and touching, bittersweet and feelgood.
  • 9lives353
    April 13, 2008
    9lives353
    I almost always expect Kenneth Brannagh to be donning a dodgy middle-ages moustache or flowery blouse whenever I see him on screen. His fascination with Shakespeare has been the bedrock of his career with successful productions of "Hamlet", "Much Ado About Nothing" and "Henry V" ...( read more)behind him. But he's also tried his hand at more mainstream work - 1991 thriller "Dead Again" and follow-up comedy, "Peter's Friends" for example. In 2000, he took his hands off the reigns, merely starring in Michael Kalesniko's directorial debut, "How to Kill Your Neighbour's Dog".

    Peter McGowan (Brannagh) is a British playwright living in LA. After considerable success in the 80s, his 90s output has struggled to make the grade and now he's agitated, struggling to sleep, chain-smoking and impotent. His excitable wife Melanie (Wright Penn - "The Pledge", "Moll Flanders", "Forrest Gump", "The Playboys"), is pressuring him to have kids - something that is not on Peter's agenda.

    Add to that the incessant night-time barking of his neighbour's dog, a stalker who claims he is Peter McGowan and the new eight-year old kid, Amy (Suzi Hofrichter), who hangs around his garden every day, and Peter's hemorrhoids might not be the worst of his problems.

    Maybe all Peter needs is to find his magic again, but work on his latest production is moving slowly, director Brian Sellars (Krumholtz - "10 Things I Hate About You", "The Mexican") and prima-donna actor Adam (Johnathon Schaech) unimpressed with the dialogue that Peter has written for the child character in the play. Peter needs to find some inspiration - maybe Amy can be that for him?

    It might be little known, but it's not under-appreciated. "How to Kill Your Neighbour's Dog" made a splash in 2000, winning several jury and audience awards and chosen to close the Toronto film festival.

    One of the main success' of Kalesniko's script is that he keeps things light-hearted despite occasionally making scathing observations about Hollywood ('If you want to be happy in Hollywood, be a cinematographer. Nobody knows what you're doing, so they can't screw with you') and human beings in general. When Melanie suggests that Peter see a doctor about his anxiety, he replies 'What if he cures me? Then, I'll have nothing to write about. Nobody wants to know about how happy you are'.

    There is perhaps a more political side to the shtick. During a TV interview, Peter calmly tells interviewer Debra Salhany: 'Do you ever think that if you attack an artist long enough, that you'll succeed in having him censor himself?' The dialogue succeeds in the main save for some occasions when it sounds like McGowan's smart-arse replies have come right off a cue card.

    The manic, mid-life crisis that seems to be enveloping Peter is amusing and while initially not caring much for his predicaments, one quickly warms to his character. Credit for this goes to Brannagh, massively underrated actor that he is. Puffing continuously on a cigarette, swearing at his neighbour's dog, frequently not bothering to shave, dismissing young Amy with a sharp tone and paying little attention to his deteriorating mother-in-law (Redgrave - "Shine", "Gregory Girl"), it is remarkable that you still smile at his frequent rants and take him at face value.

    The rest of the cast do fine. Wright Penn is not pushed in her role but she carries it off as well as should be expected. Redgrave, veteran of the screen, has little to do but mutter and look lost which she does sufficiently and the supporting acts of Krumholtz, Schaech and Peter's obsessed fan, Peter (Jared Harris - "Mr Deeds", "Smoke", "Natural Born Killers"), have their moments amongst it all.

    This is a good movie. I don't think it's award-winning caliber but essentially you go in expecting occasional entertainment and you get a good sight more in the end. There is potential in the head of Kalesniko and I'd keep an eye on his next one. I expect a Christopher Guest-style approach where we'll see him teaming up with Wright Penn and Brannagh again.
  • alienboal
    August 10, 2007
    alienboal
    a really funny movie ,with good acting and intelligent humor
  • penguinqueen8
    June 26, 2007
    penguinqueen8
    i dont know why, but this movie follows me. i think about it at least a few times a week. it has amazing dialogue but i dont know that any of the rest of it was good, save kenneth branagh's performance. hm.
  • nevernotmadeit
    May 27, 2007
    nevernotmadeit
    Alcoholics have class. I'm just a fucking drunk.

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Critic Reviews

March 1, 2002
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

Falsehoods pile up, undermining the movie's reality and stifling its creator's comic voice. full review

View more How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog (Mad Dogs & Englishmen) reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

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