I first started to watch this movie with my little nephew (thinking because of the title, it was a child's movie). But then the scene took place with the soda bottle, and I quickly turned it off (not to allow my nephew to see it). Later I watched it by myself and loved it greatly! The first time I watched it, it was dubbed, and not as compelling to me as the subtitled version (just watched it). Throughout the movie, Ingemar, the little boy in the movie, compares the tragic circumstances in his own life to that of other peoples (and a dog), who have much more tragic circumstances, so not to be so sad about his own. This is especially compelling to me, as I do the same thing also!

"Mitt Liv Som Hund" or simply "My Life as a Dog" is a warming and poetic chronicle of the life of a young boy who learns about what growing up is like when faced to live with another parents after his mother's illness prevents her from taking care of him and his older brother. The boy, Ingemar (the gifted Anton Glanzelius), narrates his distant happy memories while living with his mother and then later his future discoveries and events that changed his life. While telling his stories he keeps comparing his life to the Laika's life, the little dog who was sent to space by the Soviet in 1957, year the movie's story starts. "But one must compare", he says. And the comparison he makes with the dog is a reflexive one which seems totally unrelated with the movie but it's not. It's about the process of growing up, facing the unknown (or little known). Laika in the space, Ingemar on the ground with his eccentric uncles, new friends and far away from the very few people he knew: his sick mother and his brother, sent to another home. One has to be afraid of the unknown, to question it again and again but always compare. Maybe later one will know that aren't hard as it appear to be. It carries the same childhood innocence presented in Truffaut's "L'argent De Poche" which presented several sketches of kids getting involved in pranks, apparently harmless sometimes, other times involving great danger, but always discovering, learning something. It had its great dramatic moments but most of it was a collection of nostalgic and jolly images which brings back one of the most fundamental part of our lives: our childhood. What do we do those moments? Well, we compare it to our experiences (if you remember them) and observe if it was that difficult to break from one phase to another, and if we had strange and bitter days or wonderful and pleasant moments. We have to compare, you have to compare!Lasse Hallström makes of this a glorious, beautiful and funny picture, one to be viewed multiple times not because it's difficult or peculiar but because of its graceful and delicacy, truly reward and temptive. Not only those, he extracted one of the greatest performances by a child actor. Glanzelius is natural, convincing and a true to joy to be seen acting. His Ingemar might have a strange optic of things, a puzzling behavior and a puzzling mannerism (the thing he does with the milk to quote an example) but there's plenty of admirable things to which any of us can relate to him. It's a shame he practically vanished from the movie business after giving one helluva of performance. The golden ticket that brought the director to Hollwyood after his Oscar nomination, this is Hallström's best film to date. Not saying that "Chocolate" and "The Cider House Rules" don't have merits cause they have but gotta admit that Hollywood ruined a bit Mr. Hallström's potential with all the awarded and nominated tearjerkers he made there, most of them flicks that go for the easy tears and easy targets. He's so much more effective with simple presentations, which mirrors life and are relevant to life, going deeper than anything. In "My Life as a Dog" he goes for the smiles and the positive emotions with glimpses of sadness. Sweet as childhood. But that's just my perspective. 10/10

This is one of the most touching, challenging, downright delightful movies I've seen. It is a portrayal of the coming of age of a young trouble maker whose life is in disrepair. His mother has been victimized by disease and she has this incorrigible little boy whom she loves but can't control. He is suffering from no love and seeks it out where he can. He is the paragon of attention deficit disorder. The movie isn't morose, however. He is genuinely funny and loving when he has the chance to be. He is sent to live with relatives where his life opens up and he begins to have purpose. He is given some latitude and begins to develop a real life. Unfortunately, there are events going on around him that will impact him, including the continuing deterioration of his mother's health and the little dog he left behind. He has so little power in his life as is the case with most little boys, and at times he tries to hard. One delightful connection is a young girl who is a better athlete than the boys in the town. There is this sexual tension that takes place as she matures and begins to fall for him. It is happy and sad and has a lovely message about grasping life whenever we can. See this.

A mischievous young boy with a Puckish smile, unusual table manners, and a sympathetic kinship to Laika the Soviet astro-dog is sent by his ailing mother to live with relatives in the country, where he discovers a town full of people even more eccentric than himself. Director Lasse Hallstrom's popular Swedish import offers a refreshing look at the mysteries and heartbreak of adolescence, with all the charm but none of the cloying sentiment of other, similar coming-of-age films. The rich humor is drawn around an affectionate portrait of small town life, closely observed; the pain comes from the realization that young Ingmar's bedridden mother has already passed away. The pace is often lazy and the film is overlong, but Hallstrom's understanding of human idiosyncrasies is reminiscent of a Jacques Tati comedy, choosing to laugh with instead of at his characters. It's a memorable look at love and mortality, as seen from the innocent eyes of a boy passing through that awkward age when he begins thinking like an adult while still unable to stop acting like a child.