Red Dog

Directed by Kriv Stenders. Starring Josh Lucas, Rachael Taylor, John Batchelor, Noah Taylor, Keisha Castle-Hughes PG cert, gen release, 92 min

YOU CAN TELL a bit about how a country likes to see itself from a glance at its popular cinema. A huge hit in Australia, the likeable Red Dogappears to confirm that citizens of that country still enjoy the myth of the unpretentious larrikin. Beers are drunk. Fists are swung. Virtually every noun suffers abbreviation and the addition of a "y".

One could hardly imagine a more blissfully archetypal beginning. A stranger wanders into a rural bar to discover a group of men painfully contemplating the destruction of a greatly beloved red dog. The poor beast has, it seems, ingested a fatal dose of strychnine, and his pals feel obliged to put him out of his misery. They decide to wait and, while the dog slips into sedation, they tell the visitor the beast’s story.

Red Doguses its canine hero to unite a series of anecdotes concerning the inhabitants of a remote mining outpost in the 1970s. Trucker Josh Lucas bonds with his girlfriend at a drive-in while the dog obscures the projector. Another particularly butch character shares his secret love of knitting with the animal. There are encounters with sharks.

Based on a true story that inspired a Louis de Bernières novella, the film is really little more than a classy take on those live- action Disney offerings that used to put charming cats, dogs and cougars at the centre of family-friendly dramas. But it really is very classy indeed. The cinematography by Geoffrey Hall, who shot Chopper, drenches everything in the same rust shades that give the hero his name. The occasional outbreaks of misery stay just the right side of mawkishness. The dog's a charmer.

For my money, however, it’s the villain who steals the show. Forget Uggie. Somebody wants to give an Oscar to the terrifyingly hissy Red Cat.