“Heart of the Beast” is an engaging survival adventure film. It contains superlative performances by both a human and an animal actor. While the story breaks no new ground in terms of either its subject or cinema, it does successfully highlight the role played by military service dogs, both on active duty and in retirement.

The movie begins with a framing device, concluded at the end of the picture. A truck driven by Amber (Anna Lambe) stops on the highway when she sees a large dog standing in the road. A supertitle announces “A week earlier…”

Another title reads “Somewhere in Alaska”. A Cessna pontoon aircraft is soaring over beautiful landscapes. Although there is snow visible on the peaks, the land below seems to be in summer as there is abundant greenery. The plane lands on a lake.

One of the occupants who gets out is a human, James (Brad Pitt). The other companion is a German Shepherd named Odin (played by four dogs, all related: Uber, Ryker, Hondo and Zika). Odin is battle-scarred on the face and has a prosthetic foreleg.

For a while we see them going out into the wild. They see a moose and while James lines it up in his sights, he does not shoot it. They go fishing and Odin is the one who successfully fetches their dinner.

We discover that Odin is a retired military service dog and that James has been his handler. James is Special Forces and has served in Afghanistan and Iraq. He has flashbacks to that time. More interestingly, we see that Odin has similar traumatic dreams and his own PTSD.

On a subsequent day, they encounter a stranger, Watkins (J.K. Simmons). He claims to love the quiet of nature but talks incessantly. He follows James and Odin back to their camp and spends the night there. The next morning Watkins is seen rowing a large canoe into the misty morning, never to be seen in the movie again.

A storm is brewing. James packs up their campsite into the plane. They encounter some severe weather but James is able to pilot the craft over the clouds into calmer weather.

Suddenly James clutches his left arm in pain. As the intensity of the heart attack increases, he passes out. The plane descends and starts clipping branches off trees. Odin is thrown out of the passenger-side door. The plane crashes into a lake.

James is able to wake up in time to find an air pocket to breathe. He escapes and goes to look for Odin. He finds the unconscious dog and starts to take care of him. Odin eventually responds and seems relatively uninjured by the fall.

Needing supplies, James, apparently well enough to swim again, goes into the lake to retrieve cargo boxes from the plane. He is able to sort through the contents and assemble a pack which he can carry as they try to find their way back to civilization.

James fortunately has a map and a compass. He and Odin set out on foot to get to the nearest road. Will they be able to overcome the wilderness and its obstacles? What happens when Odin meets Amber?

When this movie began, I was immediately struck by how much it reminded me of the Wonderful World of Disney pictures set in the wilderness. Usually these had a folksy narrator. While they were full of tension, all resolved well in the end.

So there is no new ground traveled in “Heart of the Beast.” There have been surviving-the-wilderness movies before. But what sets the film apart is the bond between the human and the dog. There is very little dialogue so it was imperative that the two leads clearly portray an emotional chemistry and understanding of each other. The audience needs to believe that this exists. On this score, the picture is very successful.

I was quite surprised to discover that the movie was filmed in New Zealand. Certainly I am not expert enough to know the difference between the two locales. So my belief was suspended until the credits, and later, production notes, revealed the truth.

The cinematography is exquisitely beautiful. From long framing shots of mountains and valleys to the intimacy of James and Odin fishing together, the camera captures what it would be like to be in primeval nature. Even the night shots are well-illuminated. I especially loved the auroras, although these were probably a visual effect.

Since this was filmed in New Zealand and not Alaska, the wild animals were all effects. These include a very scary bear, moose and wolves. The close-ups of the wolves in an attack sequence seemed hyper-realistic.

The editing has to be cited as well. From the wolf-attack scene to a ride down the river without a vehicle to the plane crash, these scenes are first-rate in their composition and fluidity.

I was annoyed by the Watkins character played by J.K. Simmons. He seemed to be a completely unnecessary addition to the storyline. I can only surmise that he was introduced to give James a chance to talk about his past (and not much at that). Then Watkins just disappears. I wonder if his connection to executive producer Damien Chazelle, his director on “Whiplash,” had anything to do with his casting.

Some of the obstacles James undergoes in the wilderness also strained credulity. The rush down the river, where you hear his head go thunk against a rock, seemed un-survivable to me. Likewise, the wolves clearly outnumber one dog and a man, yet somehow the outcome is not what you would expect in real life. Were these over-the-top sequences really necessary to create interest in the plight of James and Odin?

I think that the film-makers believed that his Special Forces training makes James more likely to be able to survive these struggles. But this is not enough for me to suspend disbelief in these instances.

Pitt, however, does a great job in his role as James. His bond with Odin is believable and loving. He does seem like he was in the Special Forces. The production notes describe his training regimen for the picture in detail and it was rigorous. His later scenes are very poignant.

This film may be too scary for little children in places. There is one scene where wolves take down a baby moose that is heart-wrenching. But this is a solid action-adventure-survival picture.

Three-and-a-half out of five stars

After a harrowing plane crash, Special Forces officer James Belmont (Brad Pitt) and his combat dog, Odin, find themselves stranded deep in the Alaskan wilderness. Together, they are forced into a brutal fight for survival against the elements.

From acclaimed filmmaker David Ayer, Heart of the Beast is an intense adventure thriller that explores the unbreakable bond between a man and his best friend as they face their greatest battle yet.

Cast: Brad Pitt, J.K. Simmons, Anna Lambe
Directed by: David Ayer
Written by: Cameron Alexander