Arthur the King, 2024.
Directed by Simon Cellan Jones.
Starring Mark Wahlberg, Nathalie Emmanuel, Simu Liu, Bear Grylls, Juliet Rylance, Michael Landes, Paul Guilfoyle, Ali Suliman, Rob Collins, Elizabeth Chahin, Oscar Best, Cece Valentina, Alani Ilongwe, and Roger Wasserman.
SYNOPSIS:
Over ten days and 435 miles, an unbreakable bond is forged between pro adventure racer Michael Light and a scrappy street dog companion dubbed Arthur. As the team is pushed to their outer limits of endurance in the race, Arthur redefines what victory, loyalty, and friendship truly mean.
“You’re going to die out here,” pro adventure racer Michael Light (Mark Wahlberg) says to a wounded stray mongrel dog who has casually been meeting up with his team across their endurance test, at one point warning and saving them from stepping off a cliff to their deaths in pitch black darkness. Yes, Arthur the King is very much a film questioning who is saving who here, but it’s also about how the presence of a dog can keep egos and bad blood between competitive humans in check while also reminding the team that there are more important things than winning and that, in actuality, they don’t have to prove anything to anyone.
Getting up there in age with a wife (Juliet Rylance) and child to focus on, this is Michael’s last shot to win first place. The fact that he hasn’t done so already, combined with several other factors such as going viral on social media for his hardheaded selfishness and egotism that got one of his teams caught in the mud during the kayaking stretch of a race, means that there aren’t exactly many sponsorships available. He successfully duct-tapes one last team together, a ragtag group participating for different reasons (making a cancer-ridden father proud, friendly rivalries, and staying relevant), training and preparing on a limited budget.
There’s an argument to be made that to many of us, including Michael’s heavily critical father who would prefer his son stop tearing out the life roots he has planted and join the family business selling houses instead, this is all insane, reckless, and more selfishness. However, Michael’s father once had a taste of glory, which has apparently eaten away at him for a long time, pushing him to his limit to win one of these races before he retires, believing that suffering is a skill. That’s the gist; the film is disappointingly disinterested in exploring that tumultuous family dynamic. To their credit, everyone is giving respectable, physically committed performances that the demanding material deserves.
The script from Michael Brandt (based on a true story and book Arthur – The Dog Who Crossed the Jungle to Find a Home by Mikael Lindnord, the real-life adventure racer who has seemingly been repurposed into an American for mainstream appeal and Mark Wahlberg marketability) isn’t too interested in fleshing out the characterization of Michael’s teammates either. His main source of contention comes from Simu Liu’s adventure racer turned social media influencer Liam, the same competitor that humiliated him on Instagram after a failed race, but who is also a skilled necessity to win here. It mostly amounts to some bickering that doesn’t mean much or register as compelling.
Arthur the King does impress with its depiction of the physically grueling race, which involves everything from running to climbing to cycling to kayaking and more. There is a particularly suspenseful sequence that, whether or not it happened in real life (I’m guessing it didn’t), is irrelevant due to that stomach-dropping intensity, which is heightened by the on-location shooting in the Dominican Republic and leaning toward stuntwork (there probably is some CGI green screen mixed in, but the sequence itself is still effective.) Characters also battle blisters, dehydration, and more along the way, conveying the danger and stakes at hand in more grounded ways.
That element and how, until that point, Arthur’s involvement doesn’t overtake the entire film works; it is well-crafted, tense, and makes its point about these characters through the race itself. For whatever reason, Arthur the King goes on for roughly another 20 minutes when an ending credits text graphic would have sufficed. Directed by Simon Cellan Jones (a TV director who has apparently decided that Mark Wahlberg is his muse, having collaborated on The Family Plan last year), the film insists on having an overly sappy third act that ruins the built-up goodwill.
It’s already irritating for a film to be emotionally manipulative, especially when it’s superfluous material. One comes away from Arthur the King soured on the positives to be found. Unfortunately, cloying sentimentality turns out to be the king here.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
