Mark Wahlberg in the movie Arthur the King.

(Carlos Rodriguez / Lionsgate)

It's a ruff road to redemption in 'Arthur the King,' a well-trained tail of bonding

Katie Walsh

March 15, 2024

Move over Messi theres a new canine thespian in town. Ukai, the Australian shepherd/border collie/

b B

ouvier mix who stars opposite Mark Wahlberg in the new film Arthur the King, undertakes a performance that is more physically rigorous, if not dramatically suspenseful, than the one delivered by the French border collie who appeared in the Oscar-winning film Anatomy of a Fall.

But dog movies

,

and dogs

in

movies

,

arent just having a moment

., t T

heyve been an important part of cinema since the silent era

and an easy hack to access audiences heartstrings.

Not that Arthurs tale needed much hacking to start with. This inspirational film is based on a true story, originally a quirky human

–

interest sports

–

news item about an Ecuador

ei

an stray dog who bonded with a team of Swedish adventure racers in the middle of a grueling six-day trek, following them to the finish line

,

and eventually back to Sweden with racer Mikael Lindnord. The story became a media sensation, spawning a memoir and several other books by Lindnord,

and plus

a short ESPN documentary

,

as well as a dog rescue foundation.

Lindnords

2016

memoir Arthur: The Dog

w W

ho Crossed the Jungle to Find a Home serves as the basis for Arthur the King, adapted by screenwriter Michael Brandt and directed by Simon Cellan Jones, who also d

idrected starMark

Wahlberg

‘sin

The Family Plan.

This story of perseverance, suffering and salvation th

r

ough physical challenges is right in Wahlbergs current wheelhouse. The star is a deeply devout Catholic, devoted to a prayer and exercise routine that regularly starts around 3 a.m. His 2022 film Father Stu, in which he plays a Catholic priest who survives a motorcycle accident and is left disabled by a degenerative muscle disease, features a story of spiritual salvation through physical suffering thats a darker side of the themes in Arthur the King. Nevertheless, the amount of time his character, Michael Light, spends extolling

extols

the virtues of pain and suffering while racing in the film is a clue that this is the kind of material that Wahlberg thrills to.

Transposing the setting from Sweden to Colorado, and the race from Ecuador to the Dominican Republic (where the film was shot on location), Wahlberg stars as a washed-up adventure racer who has struggled in the past with being a team player. With one last chance to prove himself, he puts together a team for the adventure

–

racing world championships, including an old rival, Chik (Ali Suliman), a new superstar, Olivia (Nathalie Emmanuel)

,

and an estranged teammate

–

turned

–

influencer, Leo (Simu Liu). Together theyll have to run, hike, bike, climb and kayak their way over hundreds of miles of rough terrain over the course of several days to the finish line.

Intercut with the race prep is the plight of a Santo Domingo stray pup who is starved and wounded

,

living on the streets. When Michael tosses him a meatball during a rest at a race transition, the dog starts following the team through jungle downpours, river crossings and ocean paddles, serving as both motivator and mascot. He even has his own

Lassie

moments, communicating danger to the team along the way. They dub him Arthur for his stoic, regal demeanor.

Its fairly standard heartwarming dog fare,

and

often treacly

heartwarming dog fare

, calling to mind other adventurous pups in TV and film

,

like

the aforementioned Lassie,

Benji and Rin Tin Tin, but edged up with

an adventuresports milieu and

vibrant, handheld cinematography by Jacques Jouffret that gives the film a more adult, action-oriented

look and

feel (there is one CGI shot of Arthur that should have been reconsidered given the films grittier aesthetic).

Suffering may be Wahlbergs raison d

tre, but this is a lighter and more uplifting mode for the actor, who clearly enjoys the extreme physicality of the performance, even if the emotional tenor is well within his established star persona. And if youre a dog person, it will be impossible to resist the tale of Arthur and his knights of extreme sports.

Katie Walsh is a Tribune News Service film critic.