The Big Picture

• Mark Wahlberg delivers a charming performance, proving that he does his best work in crowd-pleasing movies like Arthur the King.
• Emotional moments hit the right notes, with a gripping zipline sequence that showcases solid direction and engaging visuals.
• While the supporting cast has little to do and the script feels formulaic, dog lovers will find Arthur the King a perfectly enjoyable watch.

What would your first thought be if you heard that Mark Wahlberg was starring in a movie called Arthur the King? You'd probably think, "Oh great, Hollywood is trying to do another King Arthur movie and cast Bostonian legend Mark Wahlberg for whatever reason." Simon Cellan Jones' Arthur the King is thankfully not a movie that has Wahlberg playing the legendary British icon, but instead is the kind of uplifting dog movie, based on a true story, that your grandparents will love, and you'll find perfectly watchable. That's not a bad thing or a slight against the movie. Compared to Jones and Wahlberg's last collaboration, The Family Plan (which was filmed AFTER this movie), Arthur the King is a surprisingly sweet and sentimental movie. Wahlberg has had a rough patch of movies as of late, but his performances in movies like Father Stu and Joe Bell (for how meager the rest of those movies were), felt perfect for him. Arthur the King is the kind of crowd-pleaser that Wahlberg does best.

What Is 'Arthur the King' About?

Arthur the King is based on the true story of elite athlete Mikael Lindnord, who is played by Wahlberg in the film and is renamed Michael Light, and his unlikely friendship with a stray dog while competing in the 2014 Adventure Racing World Championship. Michael had mostly left his adventure racing days behind after his team was humiliated after failing to complete a previous world championship. A handful of years passed by and Michael is struggling in his new job as a real estate agent, while also trying to raise his daughter with his wife Helena (Juliet Rylance).

Michael seeks a shot at redemption and assembles his old adventure racing crew to compete in the World Championship in the Dominican Republic. His crew consists of Leo (Simu Liu), a cocky influencer, Olivia (Nathalie Emmanuel), an experienced rock climber, and Chik (Ali Suliman), an aging athlete with a bad knee. Then there's Arthur, the stray mutt who follows the team through the rugged jungle terrain, despite being in poor health. Despite the high stress of the competition and the many setbacks that stand in Michael's team's way, the group perseveres, especially as Arthur helps guide them through the course.

'Arthur the King' Is Surprisingly Engaging and Heartfelt

While watching Arthur the King, it's hard to imagine that Jones and Wahlberg's previous movie was The Family Plan—especially since there actually seems to be a fair amount of passion behind the camera. Many of the scenes with the adventure racing team competing are filmed as if they were ripped straight out of a Paul Greengrass movie, hand-held camera movements and all. While plenty of films have failed miserably using hand-held cameras to film adrenaline-filled setpieces, in Arthur the King, many of the adventure racing sequences are engaging.

One scene in particular centering around Emmanuel's character on a zipline is especially tense and gripping. The shaky cam never becomes too distracting to the point where you can't tell what's happening on screen, and a large part of that is thanks to Jacques Jouffret's cinematography, which makes this movie look visually far more interesting than similar movies of this ilk. There are moments where the movie's visual effects and CGI become overwhelmingly noticeable, so much so that it will take you out of the movie, but there are still far more sequences that feel truly effective.

While it's easy to tell every plot beat from the get-go, that doesn't prevent Arthur the King from hitting the right emotional beats. Yes, it's fairly easy to make someone tear up by bringing in a sick dog. It's one of the oldest tricks in the book. At the same time, the movie doesn't feel as cynical in emotionally manipulating the audience as something like A Dog's Purpose. Yes, there are several scenes where it seems like the adorable Arthur is about to pass over the rainbow bridge, but aside from a few scenes, the movie treats Arthur's story with a lot of earnestness. Some of that can be credited to the fact that the movie doesn't always have Arthur on screen with Wahlberg, and there's a large portion of the film where the dog is absent from the screen. While it would be easy to complain that the marketing and the title have been misleading because who doesn't want to spend 90 minutes in the movie theater watching an adorable dog on-screen, it does make the movie feel less cheesy than you'd expect. There are still plenty of formulaic moments, and it would be pretty easy to completely tear a movie like Arthur the King apart. Thankfully, the emotional beats do work exceptionally well, especially in the third act.

'Arthur the King' Is Weighed Down By Its Weak Script

Wahlberg shines as Michael. While we've seen Wahlberg play very similar characters in other movies, he is still believable and incredibly charismatic in his role. Sure, the scenes where Wahlberg talks to the titular canine in a normal voice might remind you of the SNL sketch where Andy Samberg does an impression of Wahlberg while talking to animals, but Wahlberg doesn't treat this as a throwaway role.

The rest of the cast tries their best, but outside of Liu, no one else gets much to do in their roles. Every character feels like they're playing the same archetypal roles that we've seen from them before. Nobody gives an awful performance, Emmanuel and Suliman are serviceable in their roles and Liu is clearly having a blast playing the hot-headed, self-obsessed Leo, but the limited characterization they receive drags them down. The film does attempt to give these characters their backstories and struggles, but none of it really resonates, and often just feels shoe-horned and abrupt.

The script is full of clunky and awkward dialogue, with the characters saying lines that you have heard in dozens of other sports movies. There are moments where the screenplay feels like it was initially written to be a Lifetime movie rather than a movie made to be seen on the big screen. Most of the human elements of Arthur the King feel like an afterthought compared to the central relationship between Wahlberg and his furry companion.

Arthur the King plays out like both your typical sports movie and your average dog flick. It's sometimes emotionally manipulative and full of melodrama, yet that doesn't stop it from being a perfectly fine way to spend 90 minutes at the movie theater, especially for dog lovers. Whenever walking into such a dog movie, it's always a good idea to bring tissues. I'm a dog person and I'm also someone who cries easily while watching movies, so as expected, my eyes were not dry walking out of the theater for Arthur the King. The Wahlberg-led movie is the perfect kind of flick to watch with your family, for as emotionally manipulative as it may be, it's still inoffensive, entertaining, and competently made. Wahlberg delivers one of his better performances in recent years, reminding you that in-between all those quip-filled action-comedies, he's a talented leading man with the right material. There are some moments here involving questionable CG that will take you out of the story, but the heart never fades away.

Arthur the King is now available to stream on VOD.

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