How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog (Mad Dogs & Englishmen) (2000)

58% of critics liked it
(31 reviews)
68% of users liked it
(1,359 ratings)

Somewhere in L.A., Peter (Kenneth Branagh), a washed-up British playwright, struggles to duplicate his past glory as he surfs a foul-smelling tide of disenchantment. His wife, Melanie (Robin Wright Penn), manages to maintain an optimistic outlook even as she longs for the baby that her husband is… More Somewhere in L.A., Peter (Kenneth Branagh), a washed-up British playwright, struggles to duplicate his past glory as he surfs a foul-smelling tide of disenchantment. His wife, Melanie (Robin Wright Penn), manages to maintain an optimistic outlook even as she longs for the baby that her husband is hesitant to help her conceive. When Peter befriends Amy (Suzi Hofrichter), a neighborhood girl who has mild cerebral palsy, their friendship softens him to the idea of fatherhood and propels Melanie's maternal yearnings into hyperdrive. As if baby fever weren't enough, Peter is plagued by a seemingly benevolent stalker (Jared Harris), his neighbors' incessantly noisy dog, and the flighty cast and crew of his latest play. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi

Play Trailer

Rating, Runtime: R, 1 hr. 47 min.
Directed By: Michael Kalesniko
Written By: Michael Kalesniko
Genres: Drama, Art House & International, Comedy

In Theaters: Feb 1, 2002 Wide
On DVD: Sep 2, 2003
Studio: Artistic License

Critic Reviews

Kirk Honeycutt, Hollywood Reporter
Has an unusually high ratio of laughs per minute.
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
Falsehoods pile up, undermining the movie's reality and stifling its creator's comic voice.
Gene Seymour, Newsday
Kenneth Branagh's energetic sweet-and-sour performance as a curmudgeonly British playwright grounds this overstuffed, erratic dramedy in which he and his improbably forbearing wife contend with craziness and child-rearing in Los Angeles.
Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times
... comes alive only when it switches gears to the sentimental.
Stephen Holden, New York Times
Audiences conditioned to getting weepy over saucer-eyed, downy-cheeked moppets and their empathetic caretakers will probably feel emotionally cheated by the film's tart, sugar-free wit.
Megan Turner, New York Post
A wordy wisp of a comedy.
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com
A minor film that's no more than a trifle with some comic touches
Philip Martin, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
..
David Nusair, Reel Film Reviews
...a good film that must have baffled the folks in the marketing department.
Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
Kalesniko manages to keep all this stuff entertainingly cynical and doesn't let the ever-present sentimental goop overcome his story.
Brent Simon, Entertainment Today
An offbeat, nimble and surprisingly winning little 'life comedy' [that] captures with entertaining aplomb the spry whimsy of a writer's brain in action.
Janet Branagan, Apollo Guide
A succinct effort to explore how our relationships force us to re-evaluate what we want out of life at the most inopportune and unexpected of times.
JoBlo, JoBlo's Movie Emporium
A film that will likely not "wow" anyone over...but entertaining from a character point of view
Joe Leydon, San Francisco Examiner
Run, don't walk, to see this barbed and bracing comedy on the big screen.
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice
A surprising drama about the emptiness of cynicism when stacked up against the bounties of compassion.
, E! Online
Despite the top-quality talent and some occasionally witty shots on the vanity of Hollywood, this Dog simply isn't best in show.

Read all 16 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Walter M

[font=Century Gothic]"How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog" is about playwright, Peter Magowan(Kenneth Branagh), who used to be an enfant terrible of the theater set and is now nearing middle age. After a run of successful hits, he has been suffering recently through a… More
[font=Century Gothic]"How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog" is about playwright, Peter Magowan(Kenneth Branagh), who used to be an enfant terrible of the theater set and is now nearing middle age. After a run of successful hits, he has been suffering recently through a string of failures and desperately wants a hit but difficult rehearsals for his newest play is not making anything easier. He is married to Melanie(Robin Wright Penn) who teaches dance and desperately wants to have a baby.(This is the second movie this week[/font] I've seen [font=Century Gothic]where Robin Wright Penn plays a character who wants to have a baby. Is this a trend or am I having one of those weeks?) Peter is much more hesitant about having a child. Add into this mix - a noisy neighborhood dog, new neighbors and a mysterious stranger.[/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font] [font=Century Gothic]"How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog" is about a character finally growing up as he nears middle age which I can see but this does not necessarily have to include having children. This is almost a good movie and its only real strength is a superb performance from Kenneth Branagh. And it is too long by about twenty minutes and feeds on easy targets like morning news shows.[/font]