Nosotros, mi papá y el perro

Middle age is often a time of great change – new opportunities, the disappearance of what no longer serves us and plenty of life-altering transitions. It can be both rewarding and disorienting as the card decks of our lives are drastically shuffled in ways that are simultaneously disappointing and uplifting. But going through that process can be challenging, as explored in this comedy-drama from director Pablo Arturo Suárez. Forty-five-year-old Sebastian (Alejandro Fajardo) lives a somewhat nondescript middle class life as an architecture professor in Ecuador’s capital city, Quito. Despite this sense of seeming normality, however, he struggles to manage a plethora of frustrating scenarios, unaware that they’re just the tip of an approaching iceberg that he doesn’t see coming. For starters, his career takes a major hit when he’s fired from his job after being caught (on camera no less) having sex with one of his students, Camila (Carolina Perez), in a university classroom. Then there’s trouble at home with his cantankerous, uncooperative, health-challenged father, Rodrigo (José Ignacio Donoso), who doesn’t take care of himself and is obsessed with watching porn (a character somewhat reminiscent of Grandpa Edwin (Alan Arkin) from “Little Miss Sunshine” (2006)). Sebastian also attempts to correct what he sees as the wayward behavior of his 17-year-old son, Tomás (Esteban González), a videogame fanatic who routinely skips school, refuses to take responsibility for himself and dreams of becoming a YouTube programmer. But, if all that weren’t enough, Sebastian’s long-estranged brother, Pedro (Stefano Bajak), shows up unannounced with his Russian girlfriend, Masha (Masha Telishevskaia), stirring the pot in ways that he and the rest of the household can’t begin to imagine. Through all this, Sebastian likes to believe he can at least take comfort in the support of his loving wife, Marinés (Monserrath Astudillo), but, when she announces revelations of her own, even that source of solace is thrown into doubt. Oh, and as the film’s title notes, there’s a family dog that’s part of the mix, an adorable but aging pooch who just might be the most stable member of the family. The film follows these characters (especially Sebastian) as they attempt to sort out their lives through a generally inoffensive though patently lightweight narrative whose modest twists and turns ultimately end up unfolding with a fair number of gentle chuckles and an ample degree of heart-tugging, warm fuzzy predictability. There’s nothing especially awful about this highly formulaic offering, but it also provides little in the way of surprises or revelatory insights, the kind of film that one might best describe as a slightly off-color entry of something typically found on The Hallmark Channel. “The Dog, My Father and Us” is the kind of movie to switch on when there’s nothing else to watch, but don’t expect a lot more than that.