Pet Doctor
There’s an old saying in the theatre world “Never work with children or animals”. It’s a pity that Heijman Gross has never heard this piece of advice, or if he has, that he didn’t pay attention to it. It’s not so much that Pet Doctor is a bad film, although I can’t really find many reasons for saying it’s a good one. It’s more that it makes me angry. Gross is a good actor. His appearance on the New York stage last winter in Shakespeare’s ’Romeo and Juliet’ showed that he really can act. So what’s he doing in this nonsense? It’s a story about a small town doctor who finds he’s making more money by looking after the local children’s pets than by looking after humans. Then he gets into trouble with the police, because he doesn’t have the right sort of licence to do this and, surprise, the children and their pets find a way to solve his problems. I won’t say how, as it’s the only part of the film that’s even slightly original or amusing. If you have to see it, you’d be annoyed with me for telling you. But my advice is, when it comes to a cinema near you stay in and shampoo the cat.
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