Brad Pitt survival thriller Heart of the Beast draws strong reviews ahead of release

Brad Pitt is back in theatres with Heart of the Beast, a survival thriller directed by David Ayer that lands in cinemas on September 25. Early reviews are warm, with one rating it four stars out of five. The cast also includes J.K. Simmons, Anna Lambe, and a German Shepherd named Uber, who plays the dog Odin.

The story follows James Belmont, a retired US special forces soldier carrying PTSD from his war years, who explores the Alaskan wilderness with his battle-scarred combat dog. On a flight back over the mountains, James suffers a heart attack and the seaplane crashes. The two are left stranded in dense forest, miles from any human contact, with wolves and bears for company.

What follows is a long walk to survival. James uses his military training to pick a direction, Odin follows, and together they fight off wolves and cross violent river streams while James takes injury after injury. Both carry scars, and Odin's amputated leg is a constant reminder of what the pair lost in service.

The technical work is being singled out. Mauro Fiore's camera turns the wilderness into a character of its own, using light and shadow and tight, close shots to convey claustrophobia. Jared Michael Fry's score, built on cellos, drums and sharp basses, carries the plane crash and the climax. Dody Dorn's editing keeps the film to 1 hour and 41 minutes with nothing wasted.

Pitt is on screen for almost the entire runtime, and with very little dialogue he works through his eyes, his body language and his voice. Reviewers note the film's unusual care with Odin's own trauma, his nightmares and tremors shown even before his handler's. J.K. Simmons appears in a brief cameo and Anna Lambe has a short role.

Not every reading is glowing. One review calls the screenplay by Cameron Alexander fairly routine for a survival thriller, content to be a tearjerker rather than dig into the grief it keeps circling. Even so, both reviews land in the same place: this is a film about unconditional love and the bond between a soldier and his dog, and it is worth the ticket.