Should you watch The Art of Racing in the Rain?

Halfway through The Art of Racing in the Rain DVD I stopped decorating the Christmas tree and plopped onto the couch, mesmerized. I told my husband to play it while I was decorating the Christmas tree, so I could listen and loosely pay attention. Although the book was highly rated, and so was the movie, I wasn’t expecting to like it.

I read the book a number of years ago and seemed to be one of the few people who didn’t really like it too much. It has a lot of information about racecar driving, which didn’t hold my interest. Plus, much of the story was told from the dog’s point of view, which although cute, generally is not a good way to write a book (at least that’s what agents and editors proclaim). I do most of my reading before going to sleep or in the bathroom, so if the story doesn’t grab me, sometimes I get lost when there are long descriptions that don’t interest me.

The first half of the movie was about Denny (Milo Ventimiglia) and race car driving. On a whim, he stops at a place selling golden retriever puppies and picks out Enzo (narrated by Kevin Costner). Enzo is named after racing legend Enzo Ferrari. Although there were some cute puppy scenes, I could pretty much look up now and then while I decorated the tree. But at about the halfway point, Denny meets Eve (Amanda Seyfried) who claims she isn’t a dog person, but he falls for her anyway. At this point more dialogue occurs and there was less narration about racing, so the movie grabbed my interest. 

Enzo wasn’t too sure about Eve at first but grows to like her especially since she is at home more than Denny, who is often away at races. Eve becomes Denny’s wife and gives birth to his child (Zoe played by Ryan Kiera Armstrong). Everything goes fine for a few years except that Eve’s parents don’t like Denny racing since it is a high-risk profession. Eve is very supportive of Denny’s racing since she understands his love of his profession and his dream of success.

Of course, we are all waiting for Denny to get into a serious car crash, but that doesn’t happen, which is surprising since he takes many risks and drives best in the rain. Instead, Eve develops a brain tumor and eventually dies. Her parents feel that Denny cannot take care of eight-year-old Zoe and file a suit against Denny, claiming he assaulted Eve’s dad.

Most of this is told through Enzo’s point of view with him being the philosophizing all-knowing dog, who, of course, saves the day.

Yes, this movie is a tear-jerker and dog lovers will enjoy it. Some of the movie reviews said it was too sappy. But I felt the movie was much better than the book. I can’t say much about my cocker spaniel, Buffy’s opinion, since she mostly slept on the couch next to me. On my husband’s scale of “you’ll know it’s boring if I fall asleep,” scale, he stayed awake and also claimed it was good. I think I even heard him sniffle at the end. We all know what happens in most dog movies. Yes, Enzo does die, but they show him finally getting his life-long wish of riding in a race car with Denny.

Have you seen the movie or read the book, The Art of Racing in the Rain?

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This review was not endorsed by any entity and is entirely my own opinion.

If you would like to read some of the reviews, please check out these links.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/art-racing-rain-review-1227089

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-art-of-racing-in-the-rain-movie-review-2019