Team PCheng

People probably think I’m a cat lady since I post a lot of our cat’s photos online. Well the truth is I’m a dog person too, I guess I like animals and pets, generally. 🙂 We just had to get Nam-Nam since we had some vermin trouble a while back. 😛 

I guess we at some point in our lives we had that pet dog that made our day, who was always there waiting when we got home from a long day at work or in school. I would usually stay away from dog movies since I know I would probably end up ugly crying but Max seems to have a unique and interesting story of a Military Dog in Afganistan. 

Directed by Boaz Yakin (“Remember the Titans”), “Max” stars Josh Wiggins (“Hellion”) as Justin Wincott, Lauren Graham (“Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs,” TV’s “Parenthood”) as his mom, Pamela, and Oscar nominee Thomas Haden Church (“Sideways”) as his dad, Ray.

A precision-trained military dog, Max serves on the frontlines in Afghanistan alongside his handler, U.S. Marine Kyle Wincott. But when things go terribly wrong on maneuvers, Kyle is mortally wounded and Max, traumatized by the loss of his best friend, is unable to remain in service.

“When people connect with an animal there’s a primal bond that often goes beyond what we experience with other people,” says Director Boaz Yakin, this was the initial inspiration for the film. 

Yakin, a self-proclaimed dog-lover attests, “I wanted to tell a story that was emotional and heightened, while still keeping it rooted in reality.” He turned to longtime friend Sheldon Lettich, who co-wrote the screenplay.

“Sheldon is a Marine Corps Vietnam Veteran and brought in the idea of using MWD’s. These dogs risk their lives, or have their lives put at risk, going far ahead of their units in order to literally smell out danger,” he adds.

That instinct was reinforced when Yakin and Lettich watched one of the many viral videos of MWDs lying mournfully beside their handler’s casket at their funerals, loyal to the end and beyond. Such videos have touched a deep chord in millions of viewers around the world.

Lettich shares, “When we saw the video of the MWD grieving over his partner, we knew that was the core of our canine hero.”

But what happens when a MWD is unable to work anymore due to injuries, stressor trauma, which can cause Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)? Thanks to Robby’s Law, which went into effect in 2000, MWDs are no longer simply euthanized. They can be adopted by their handlers or other former handlers.

“It’s like a human coming back, it’s an adjustment. We wanted to follow a fictional dog home stateside after his handler’s death and see where that took the dog—and the family,” Lettich explains.

Which is what happens to Max; shipped stateside, the only human Max seems willing to connect with is Kyle’s teenage brother, Justin, so He is adopted by Kyle’s family, essentially saving his life. But Justin has issues of his own, such as living up to his father’s expectations for him; he isn’t interested in taking responsibility for his brother’s troubled dog. However, Max may be Justin’s only chance to discover what really happened to his brother that day on the front, and with the help of a tough-talking young teen, Carmen, who has a way with dogs, Justin begins to appreciate his canine companion.

Justin’s growing trust in Max helps the four-legged veteran revert back to his heroic self, and as the pair race against time to unravel the mystery, they find more excitement—and danger—than they bargained for. But they each might also find an unlikely new best friend…in each other.

“The military aside, people connect with dogs so strongly,” says Yakin. “We often are able to relate to animals, and allow ourselves to be vulnerable with animals, in a way that we don’t with people.”

He continues, “Max became a metaphor for loss and for getting this family to understand and deal with that loss. And to discover what they need to do in order to reconnect with each other.”

Opening across the Philippines on Friday, June 26, “Max” is distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.