Movie Review: Arthur the King

For any aspiring screenwriter or movie producer, submitting the script for the new movie "Arthur the King" would most likely be rejected because the story of one exceptional dog following a group of 4 endurance racers through a huge forest and mountains would be considered too unbelievable. For this story to be greenlighted as a major movie, it would have to be a true story, which it is. However this film does not begin with the standard, "this is a true story" message at the start of the movie, you have to wait until the end to realize that this incredible series of events actually did happen.

This story follows the career of an Ironman athlete Mikael Lindnord, played by Mark Wahlberg, who assembles a group of friends and endurance racers to participate in the world's most difficult endurance race, the "Adventure Racing World Championships". This race includes running, hiking, climbing, biking, and kayaking through the most difficult terrain in the Dominican Republic. I remember thinking while watching this film, why anyone would ever want to risk their lives for a sporting event like this that requires a team of 4 extreme athletes to trek through 435 miles of mountains and jungle in 10 days.

To participate in this race, Lindnord has to get corporate sponsorship and assemble a group of 3 other athletes, finally accepting only 50 thousand dollars to risk the lives of 4 people. I wondered how any person could make a living in a sport like this, with so little money involved with so much danger.

The majority of the movie is about the preparation for the race and establishing the relationships between the other 3 participants, played by Nathalie Emmanuel, Simu Liu, and Ali Suliman - with the dog, making his first appearance with the group of athletes after the first 70% of this story. The dog, who the group named Arthur the King, is an abandoned stray in the city of Santo Domingo, who after hooking up with the team mid-way through the competition bonds with Mikael Lindnord and displays a level of intelligence that is unmatched by any dog I have seen portrayed in any movie. Somehow, this dog was able to follow the group of adventure racers through over 200 miles of jungle and mountains and managed to save several of their lives along the way.

Several highly emotional scenes between the dog and Mikael Lindnord are very well done, especially with an ending that is worth sitting through these 90 minutes. This is a story that is definitely for dog lovers and reminds all of us that there is so little we truly know about the intelligence of pets.

The Rotten Tomatoes rating of only 67% is once again, way off, with my rating a solid 85%.