Tucker Tooley and Mark Wahlberg‘s film “Arthur the King” is everything one might expect from the trailer: an ordinary sports story and average dog movie. However, it does manage to tug at the audience’s heartstrings by telling this sweet, based on a true story, tale.
Its plot is centered around the sport of adventure racing, which requires incredible endurance. Athletes must hike, run, mountain bike, rock climb, kayak, use their navigational skills and, in the case of “Team Broadrail,” zipline. The team took part in a 435-mile race that led them through jungles and across rivers. It’s a challenge that can last up to ten days, offers next to no sleep and makes tending to one’s health a time penalty.
The strain of such an activity was not portrayed in the movie. Instead, it was filled with corny inspiring lines and characters who seemed to lack motivation of any substance.
The protagonist, Michael Light, is a thrill seeker craving glory and desperate for a win. Played by the rather static Mark Wahlberg, Light leaves behind his wife and young daughter to play out this last shot at victory. After his viral failure in a previous race, he struggles to get a sponsor. Eventually Light is successful, but the deal comes with a contingency: he must include someone who betrayed him on this hopefully victorious four-person crew.
The team consists of leader Michael Light, Leo (Simu Liu), who had posted the viral photo of Michael’s failure and is a required team member by the sponsor, Olivia (Nathalie Emmanuel), a brilliant climber with a father whose name is rooted in the sport, and Chick (Ali Suliman), their navigator who was dropped from the championship team because of his bad knee.
The team isn’t allowed ample time to prepare, as their funding was half that of Light’s initial ask. These Americans arrive in the Dominican Republic just days before their race began, which is not nearly enough to become acclimated to the increased heat and humidity. The real-life team, who was Swedish and competed in Ecuador, faced similar training time restrictions.
From here, the movie plays out as expected. It includes some nail-biting scenes that keep audiences on the edge of their seats, especially when the team encountered a fraying zipline.
At one of the rest locations, Light meets a scrappy stray, who he shares meatballs with even though he claims to “not be a dog person.” From there, the media closely follows the team with its added member, and the challenging question of what truly is the most valuable outcome of the race becomes an apparent theme.
Overall, the movie is a classic heartwarming, feel-good cliché. The human storyline is insignificant, but the arrival of the scruffy street dog companion makes the film more worthwhile.
The end of the movie features sweet photos of the real people the cast portrays, and this validation of the reality of the inspiring story leaves viewers feeling uplifted.
