My Dog Skip review

Imagine a world where it's always sunny, where pre-teen children romance each other without embarrassment and where Jack Russells prompt comments such as: "He opened my eyes to the wonders of life."

That world existed in 1940s Mississippi. At least, it did according to Willie Morris, who wrote the autobiographical novel on which My Dog Skip is based.

This clumsy exercise in sugary nostalgia is a `heart-warming' tale of how scrawny scrote Morris (Frankie Muniz) took his first steps from boyhood to manhood, all with the help of his faithful dog, who, we are told, "seemed as if he possessed the wisdom of a creature as old as time".

The result is a cross between last year's lamentable Simon Birch and Old Yeller, but without the rabies (sadly). Even mutt lovers will have difficulty finding anything cute or loveable about Skip - for anyone other than the most easily-pleased tots, this is less dog's, more bollocks.