Jack the Dog

Jack the Dog is a 2001 American comedy-drama film, written and directed by Bobby Roth and starring Néstor Carbonell, Barbara Williams, Barry Newman, and Anthony LaPaglia. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 22, 2001, and was released on DVD in the United States by Rivercoast Films on August 12, 2008. A sequel, Manhood, was released in 2003.

Plot
Serial womanizer Jack (Néstor Carbonell) settles down with Faith (Barbara Williams), but when the marriage falls apart due to Jack's desire for women, he has to share custody of their son, Sam (Andrew J. Ferchland). Living with Sam makes Jack slowly change his thinking and way of life.

Cast

 * Néstor Carbonell as Jack The Dog
 * Barbara Williams as Faith
 * Andrew J. Ferchland as Sam
 * Barry Newman as Simon
 * Anthony LaPaglia as Jack's Attorney
 * Travis Fine as Buddy
 * Peter Coyote as Alfred Stieglitz
 * Thomas Gibson as Faith's Attorney
 * Jürgen Prochnow as Klaus
 * Lauren Tom as Angel
 * Navi Rawat as Ruby
 * Grey DeLisle as Estella
 * Gia Carides as Georgia
 * Gabe Kaplan as Richie
 * Tracey Walter as The Mortician

Release
The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 22, 2001. Rivercoast Films distributed the film through home media in the United States on August 12, 2008.

Reception
Jack the Dog received a mixed to negative response from film critics, and gained a lukewarm reception during its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. Todd McCarthy of Variety wrote: "Tale, which lurches along with little sense of pacing or time elapsed, has plenty of niggling problems," and added: "Performances, from the handsome Carbonell to those of Williams as the rhinoceros-hided wife and the many actresses in for literally quickies, are energetic but no more illuminating than the dialogue as to the inner life of their characters."