Why canine drama isn’t really about the dog
Review
Arthur the King (M, 107 mins) Directed by Simon Cellan Jones Reviewed by James Croot ***
Arguably the best adventure racer never to win a world championship, Michael Light’s (Mark Wahlberg) near two-decade career appeared to end in ignominy. A bad decision at the 2015 competition in Costa Rica left his team high and dry – a subsequent Instagram post exposing his error for all to ridicule.
But for a man who has made suffering “a skill” ever since high school, Light is determined that moment should not define him, be what he’s remembered for, or how his career ends.
Reaching out to veteran navigator Chik (Ali Suliman) and exciting young climber Olivia (Nathalie Emmanuel), he feels like he has the makings of a terrific quartet. However, potential sponsors Broadrail aren’t quite so sure, giving him only half the money he seeks and imposing a gut-wrenching condition – his fourth has to be his Insta-tormentor Leo Sun (Simu Liu).
Swallowing his pride, Michael makes peace with his former compadre and begins preparing for the 2018 race in the Dominican Republic. However, finances mean arriving only four days, rather than the ideal four weeks, before the start.
While not daunted by the five-to-10 days of trekking, climbing, biking and paddling at least 435km that loom, privately Michael worries how they’ll deal with the testing terrain, pressure from crack opponents like the Australian-based Team Arc’teryx and whether Chik’s knees will hold up.
Inspired by Swedish athlete Mikael Lindnord’s 2016 book Arthur – The Dog Who Crossed the Jungle to Find a Home (which details how he encountered a persistent stray dog during a race in Ecuador in 2014), director Simon Cellan Jones’ (The Family Plan, Years and Years) tale of determination and doggy derring-do really only brings the team’s unexpected canine companion into play on the home stretch.
And mongrel “Arthur” disappointingly feels somewhat peripheral, more an inspiration for Wahlberg’s character’s change of attitude as to what he’s really racing for.
At times, Michael Brandt’s (Wanted, 3.10 to Yuma) script becomes bogged down in adventure-racing exposition, Bear Grylls’ bland “commentary” doing a lot of narrative heavy lifting, and while some of the set-pieces are thrilling (a literal bike climb here, a tense zipline conundrum there), they end up feeling somewhat contrived (just like the 54-team race that, to the viewer, appears to have only two).
Any twists are telegraphed well in advance, while Arthur is also another classic example of a Hollywood anti-tourism campaign for its host country (while also suggesting America’s own quarantine controls are rather lax).
Still, those who enjoy a good underdog story with a message, or are committed fans of the increasingly shaggy charms of down-to-earth “everyman” Wahlberg, will find their King in solid, if unspectacular, form and territory.
Arthur the King is available to stream on Prime Video.