"Man's 'Best' Friend"
by Scott Mantz

"Best in Show"
Christopher Guest, Eugene Levy
Directed by Christopher Guest

"Guest and pooch share a moment in 'Best in Show'"

Grrr! It really ruffles my feathers when my friends pick on me for loving my cat so much. The fact is, until you've had a pet, you just can't understand what it's like to share a bond with a four-legged member of the family. In the most extreme cases, we treat our pets better than we treat our kids, and therein lies the focus of "Best in Show," a mockumentary that does for the world of dog shows what "Nashville" did for country music. Though the film may not always hit its mark, it is filled with enough laughs to keep you rolling over in the aisle and begging for more.

Dog owners from all over the country are convening in Philadelphia for the 125th Annual Mayflower Dog Show. Among them are nerdy Gerry Fleck (Eugene Levy) and his retired slut-of-a-wife (Catherine O'Hara), who came all the way from Florida only to realize that they still have a few kinks to work out in their marriage. Then there's Hamilton (Michael Hitchcock) and Meg Swan (Parker Posey), a snobby upper class couple who care more about their dog than they do about each other. Stefan Vanderhoof (Michael McKean) and Scott Donlan (John Michael Higgins) are a gay couple whose flair for fashion is even adopted by their shih tzu, while good ol' boy Harlan Pepper (Christopher Guest) is a pro fisherman who's joined at the hip with his bloodhound. Who will win the competition? See the movie and find out.

Mockumentaries are a rare breed in Hollywood, but one filmmaker who really knows how to groom them is Christopher Guest. Not only did he co-write and star in Rob Reiner's mockumentary-to-end-all-mockumentaries "This Is Spinal Tap," but he also directed his own mock-doc, the excellent "Waiting For Guffman" in 1997.

With "Best in Show," Guest gathers the usual suspects from "Guffman," but this time around, the result is more of a mutt than a pedigree. The non-structured, improvised format that defined "Guffman" should have given Guest and co. plenty of inspiration, but the problem is that there may be too much material for them to choose from. Adopting a more Altman-esque approach for this film, Guest has too many characters to focus on, and as a result, we never get to know or understand any of them to make an emotional connection.

The film certainly has its moments, particularly when the dog show gets under way. Fred Willard plays one of the event commentators who seems like he must have showed up for the wrong function, and his hilariously inappropriate comments wind up being the best in the film. Christopher Guest plays the dog lover from the bayou whose southern drawl only adds to his charm, while Eugene Levy (who co-wrote with Guest) plays the lovable dweeb with two left feet (literally) who has to rise to the occasion when the time calls for it.

The rest of the cast either doesn't seem to be as inspired by the material, or they go off in another direction completely. Michael McKean's and John Michael Higgin's pampered gay couple-shtick falls into the "been there, done that" category, while Parker Posey and Michael Hitchcock are so over the top with their obsession that they merely become an annoyance. It gets to a point where you just want to smack them on the nose and lock them in their room.

The concept of loving your pet is something that most of us can relate to, but it's just too bad that we couldn't relate more to these characters. As it is, only when the competition gets under way does the film recall the glory days of "Spinal Tap" and "Waiting For Guffman." Still, despite its flaws, "Best in Show" is just what the doctor ordered after the dog days of summer. I could go on more about the movie, but I have to feed my cat.

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