Sleeping Dogs

DVD Review: Sleeping Dogs (2006)

Comedians don’t generally translate well into script-writing, especially when it comes to film. Not nowadays, anyway. Britain’s seen enough of its finest comic talents who trod the boards on Saturday Live or The Secret Policeman’s Ball go on to make crappy big-screen adaptations of their best-loved characters (Kevin And Perry Go Large, Ali G Indahouse) to reinforce the point. Trouble is, most characters are a one-note joke – you can’t do a lot with a character that’s so ubiquitous thanks to a catchphrase or an action. Borat only really succeeded because he was a “sleeper” character, and as such was able to get away with a lot more than Ali G, for example, couldn’t. We knew what Ali G would say, but not Sacha Baron Cohen’s other creation.

Even in America, comedians tend to shy away from writing their own film scripts because they’re either too outrageous or they prefer the safety of television, where they only have to fill half an hour and they call the shots. Jerry Seinfeld, for example, will never make a Seinfeld film. There won’t ever be a Cheers or Frasier movie. Dave Chappelle, who was so successful with Dave Chappelle’s Block Party, only went with a ‘concert film’.

So we could say that a one-note character straying way too far from their comic persona into a fictional script far removed from their own comic observations would be bound to fail once filmed. Sleeping Dogs is written and directed by Bobcat Goldthwait, and it takes its cue from an act of bestiality. Get my coat, I’m leaving.

Goldthwait is generally recognised and loved from Police Academy 3 and 4, where he played Cadet (latterly Officer) Zed, who had an odd squeaky voice and could hardly keep his temper in check. Before all of that, he was actually a well-respected stand-up across the pond and has long been a director and producer of scripts. It’s just that bestiality thing…however could he think that would work?

The plot is fairly straightforward, in fact. In her college days, Amy (Melinda Page Hamilton) got a bit curious, and for want of a more poetic way of putting it, gave her dog a blow-job. It was a one-off act, and she puts it out of her mind until she meets John (Bryce Johnson), falls in love and he proposes. He’s the perfect chap, and loves her no matter what, like all “perfect” men in films say. One night he asks her what the strangest thing she ever did was. She fudges somewhat, unsure whether to tell the truth, but decides not to since they’re off on a road trip to visit her folks, who are very traditional.

The visit reveals more behind the façade of normality than by rights we should expect to see. The traditional mother once played sex games with Elvis and Roy Orbison, the father is a bitter man who only keeps up appearances for his wife, and Amy’s brother Dougie (Jack Plotnick) is a jobless crystal meth addict with undisguised hostility and jealousy towards his sister.

In this spirit, Amy decides the time is right to tell John her dark secret, and he’s naturally appalled. The events spiral nastily out of control. Dougie lets slip Amy’s secret to the folks, who disown her, and John and Amy split up because he cannot respect her anymore. The only people who stand by her are the ones who aren’t party to Amy’s nasty little act.

If it doesn’t sound like the kind of thing you might like to see, I’d like the opportunity to change your mind. Sleeping Dogs is an undeservedly forgotten little indie that has humour, intelligence and pathos. After a summer of dreck at the multiplex, you could do a lot worse. Let me reassure you that you don’t actually see a dog getting its rocks off, and as disgusting as you might find that idea, it is only an idea. Goldthwait himself admits in the extras he tried in vain to figure out another deep dark secret for Amy to have, but none had the sheer punch that his chosen one did. Like the similarly misunderstood Spanking The Monkey, this has an illegal sexual act as a motif but is certainly not about sexual perversion. Aside from the opening shots of Amy’s college days, Sleeping Dogs is a film about morality and how flexible it is, and when it comes to family matters, the morals you carry with you are constantly created and redrawn as your own kin’s boundaries are discovered and repressed.

Sleeping Dogs is one of the most directly funny films I’ve seen in a while, and that’s due again to Goldthwait. It’s not everyday you hear a line like “So, does anyone else know what canine semen tastes like?” outside of a Hamburg sex cinema, but it works in this context. To recap for any aspiring comedians out there thinking of writing their own scripts, cut the character comedy and go straight for the heart, because despite the obvious humour, Goldthwait goes straight for the heart strings and succeeds in spades. Like The Damned, the ending is neat neat neat, but who cares after ninety minutes of proper, dyed-in-the-wool brilliance?

Extras: Trailer, Commentary with the engaging Goldthwait and an entertaining Q&A with Goldthwait and leading (ahem) lady Melinda Page Hamilton, which is worth a watch solely to discover if he speaks like Zed in real life.

Chris Stanley