While The Art of Racing in the Rain lays the dramatic contrivances, manipulative narrative twists, and half-assed philosophizing on just as some other recent movies about wise, old dogs have, there’s no questioning that director Simon Curtis and screenwriter Mark Bomback have come up with a somewhat identical sounding story offered up in a vastly preferable, less patronizing manner.
Milo Ventimiglia
The affable, but unexceptional workplace comedy Second Act boasts a surprisingly solid, confident, and lightly inspiring first half before a midpoint twist sends the whole thing onto a different set of tracks in a flash and straight into needlessly manipulative territory.