YEAR OF THE DOG

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Minimalist non-romantic comedy from debut writer/director Mike White (writer on "School of Rock") asserts that substituting the love of animals is equal to or even greater than spending time with people.

Gloomy loser Peggy Snow (Molly Shannon), a corporate nine-to-fiver whose dog Pencil dies when she lets it out in the middle of the night and it eats snail poison in her neighbor’s garage.

Peggy’s spirits are briefly lifted when she starts dating Newt (Peter Sarsgaard), a vegan ASPCA worker not interested in a sexual relationship due to his latent homosexuality.

And so it goes that Peggy fulfills her own prophecies of failure after becoming vegan and forging her boss’s signature on a check to an animal-friendly farm.

Compelling secondary performances by Laura Dern, John C. Reilly and Josh Pais can’t distract from Molly Shannon’s distinctly repellant character.

"Dog of the Year" might be a better title.

Rated PG-13. 97 mins.