While I love a good dog story with a happy ending and who doesn’t love an armchair adventure, “Arthur the King” fails on so many fronts that its only redemption can be found in its outreach to dog adoption agencies.  The film stars Mark Wahlberg who is convincing as a last-try almost-over-the-hill elite athlete, but the failure lands mostly on the director Simon Cellan Jones (“The One and Only” and “The Family Plan”).

The producers undoubtedly know there are problems with the product because even though there were multiple screenings in February, the strict embargo was in place and the only way I knew it had been lifted was when I saw trade publication reviews up.  Before you think maybe I’m writing fueled by sour grapes due to the recent PR fiasco which included the snubbing of a terminally ill rescue dog, I had already decided on a negative review.

After the press screening I attended, I was so happy to bring my own rescue to the screening’s after-party event, I wanted to return the favor.  I thought the best thing that I could do for this film was write a fluff piece on one of the secondary leads, Simu Liu, and how he adopted a dog he met during the filming of “Arthur the King” in the Dominican Republic. That article won’t happen even though the amount of time an energy I spent was more than I had originally budgeted for a “fun” and uncritical piece.

Based on Mikael Lindnord’s 2016 autobiographical book, “Arthur – The Dog Who Crossed the Jungle to Find a Home,” the film “Arthur the King” changes the location from Lindnord’s native Sweden to the US, with Wahlberg’s character becoming Michael Light. He’s married to Helena (Juliet Rylance), a former teammate,  and his main claim to fame is never finishing first in a grueling team sport that requires a team running, trekking, climbing, biking and kayaking over 435 miles of rough terrain for about a week, with penalties for certain kind of medical care. From the beginning, we understand his losses are due to poor decisions as a team captain. During his last race, he ignored  warnings from team members like Leo (Simu Liu), resulting in his team within reach of a first place finish, but literally stuck in mud.

Yet Light finds himself deeply unsatisfied. Although he can fall back on working for his father-in-law (Paul Guilfoyle), he wants one more chance. Age is the limiting factor to all athletes and this race will be Light’s final chance to prove himself. With his wife retired into motherhood, caring for their young daughter Ruby (Cece Valentina), Light gathers a team which includes social-media successful Leo (Liu), expert climber Olivia (Nathalie Emmanuel) who carried a heavy secret and an old friend with a bum knee Chik (Ali Suliman) for the Adventure Racing World Championship.  Leo brings some of the sponsors in, but Light still has to partially finance the team.

The film suffers from  problems with lighting and framing in the domestic family scenes, and those problems only increase with the staging of the rigors of the adventure part of the racing. This is in stark contrast with the recent debut feature film by real adventure documentarians (i.e. “Nyad”).

While the real-life Lindnord and his Arthur met in Ecuador (and there’s some controversy as to whether Arthur was truly an unowned stray dog), the film transports the adventure racing team to the Dominican Republic for this 435-journey through jungles and mountains on treacherous mud-slicked trails with the final legs being kayaking to a sprint finish. The bond between Light and the dog starts with a meatball, but the script by Michael Brandt (“2 Fast 2 Furious” and “3:10 to Yuma”) never adequately explains how the dog followed the team from where they initially meet and over some of the obstacles the team faces before they take him on as a true team member.

The dog playing Arthur (Ukai) isn’t as winning or convincing as Messi (Snoop in “Anatomy of a Fall”), but he’s calm and has appealing brown eyes (Messi’s are a startling blue.). There’s a point in the film where his life seems endangered and tears did come to my eyes, but my dog is running down the cul-de-sac of cancer. I’m already on the emotional edge as far as canines are concerned. The connection between Ukai’s Arthur and Wahlberg’s Light, is not as intensely personal as the dogs and Halle Berry in “John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum.”

While Wahlberg gives a fine performance as the almost-too-old athlete, many of the roles are underwritten, particularly that of the essential female teammate.

Of course, there will be a happy ending of sorts. Be assured no dog dies although the real Arthur died in December 2020 of natural causes.  Lindnord was an adventure racer from 1997 to 2015. He was team captain of Peak Performance and the first team from Sweden to win an international Adventure Racing World Series event (Costa Rica 2010). Lindnord met Arthur in 2014 and has written three books about Arthur: “Arthur – The Dog Who Crossed the Jungle to Find a Home” (2016), “Arthur and Friends: The Incredible Story of a Rescue Dog, and How Our Dogs Rescue Us” (2017) and “Young Arthur – Inspired by the True Story of Arthur, the Rescue Dog” (2024).  The Arthur Foundation founded in his name operated from 2014 to 2018.

Lindnord was one of the executive producers of “Arthur the King” and made sure that everything was technically correct.

“Arthur the King” was released in Italy on 22 February 2024 according to IMDb.com and will be released in the US on 15 March 2024. If you’re a fan of Arthur and his story, by all means, see this film, but considering the cost of tickets, you might want to wait until it is available to stream.