Movie Thoughts: Kayla: A Cry in the Wilderness (1999)

• Released: February 25 1999
• Directed by: Nicholas Kendall
• Running time: 1 h 36 min
• Rating 3/5

Synopsis

A boy named Sam moves north and befriends a wild Malamute which he names Kayla, who in turn helps him deal with the disappearance of his father.

My Thoughts

Not all sled-dog movies have a lot more story to them than just the race, so I'm glad this one did. Honestly, the dog-sledding part feels more like an afterthought. While certainly present, the real focus is Sam and his bond with  Kayla and to a lesser extent Jaynie. 

While the characters were decently written, I was put off by just how many of them were assholes. I get that Sam is hurting, but damn, he's so harsh towards his mom, his step-father and even his best friend who is the reason he can participate in the race in the firsts place. Then in turn Jaynie can be a bit of an ass too, as can her father, and Sam's (step) parents. There's so much negative energy between these characters it became a bit hard to watch at times, but Sam's arrogance towards Jaynie was the worst if you ask me. She's risking everything to help him participate in the race with his dogs, and he doesn't even thank her or let her participate. I really hoped that, after she breaks her leg, she'd still be allowed to ride on the sled during the race, but Sam actually doesn't come around to being nice to her after he's already won. What if he'd lost? He'd probably still act like a dick towards her. 

Heck, even the bond between Sam and Kayla has its down points. I get that this happens at first, but after Kayla is almost shot and starts to bleed to death and can no longer pull the sled, Sam just leaves him behind instead of loading him onto the sled with Jaynie. He doesn't even bring up why he doesn't just do this. No dialogue is exchanged along the lines of "it'll make the sled to heavy". He just unleashes Kayla and lets the poor dog bleed to his near-death in the snow. Yes, he does come back later, but he shouldn't have left him in the first place. 

To make things worse, the characters also keep using the E-slur and saying stuff like "they think they know everything, don't believe them." Yeah, not great. 

The acting was okay, though, and the cinematography was decent, too. I liked the dogs they got to play the roles, particularly Kayla who comes across as a cool dog character you'd want to hang out with. I also like how it's kept vague whether or not Kayla is a dog that used to belong to Sam's father or a dog that coincidentally looks the same. But even if he isn't, he allows for Sam to have a bond with something his father loved: dogs and dogsledding, so that's nice.

Honestly, this movie could've been quite good if it wasn't so mean-spirited at times. From the villains: totally understandable. Giving Sam his down moments because he's still coping with his father's loss: understandable, but don't overdo it. Right now the movie just feels "decent" to me. 

I do like that we get a significant amount of time dedicated to exploring the characters and bonds between them, but it's just a bit too mean sometimes to feel pleasant.