Wiener Dog's demise....
We have five wieners in the casa right now--three are my wife's & mine, two belong to my son & daughter-in-law. As I caution people: once you go wiener, no other breed will ever satisfy.
The Wiener is God.
(&, yes, the Devil, too:)
What that in mind, I know, that of late The Dog in pretty much any contemporary film is likely to fare about as well as the The Black Guy in a horror movie ensemble cast.
& I also know what to expect from Solodnz...
So, anyone complaining about Wiener Dog's fate clearly walked into the wrong screening room or miss-selected on their Amazon Prime menu.
That said, I was fully prepared to dislike what I anticipated to be Wiener Dog's fate. Instead I found it a relief. Wiener's demise was nearly a throw-away scene, short, ironic & very distant. Far, far easier to bear than some drawn-out emotional euthanasia set piece at the vet's (which is what I had expected).
It helps as well that, as Solondz has put it, Wiener Dog wasn't a character, & the story's not invested in her very much at all. She's more of a movable McGuffin that happens to be alive.
The only part of the film that actually upset me a bit were the opening credits--where's she's put in a crate with no cushion to lay down in, & cancer boy's ridiculous parents. I would sign any petition calling upon people like that to be euthanized just for being so utterly disgusting & childish.
Not sure what I think about the film as a whole. Have to ponder it a bit. But credit to Solondz for keeping his distance from Wiener Dog, & permitting the audience to do so as well. It was quite appropriate to her function in the story.
Though I still wouldn't mind taking a baseball bat & breaking dad's legs for trying to put Wiener down the moment she became inconvenient.