HEART OF THE BEAST — Brad Pitt & Odin

Brad Pitt Has a New Leading Man. He Just Happens to Have Four Legs.

Brad Pitt has spent decades making danger look handsome. Odin makes it look personal.

In Heart of the Beast, Pitt plays James Belmont, a former Special Forces officer stranded in the Alaskan wilderness after a plane crash with his retired combat dog. David Ayer could have made another survival movie about an emotionally damaged man versus nature. Instead, he has put something much more dangerous beside him: a creature who knows him without needing his explanation.

And from what we've seen so far, Odin is not decoration.

He's watching. Reacting. Choosing. Staying.

That's the distinction Hollywoof should become obsessed with.

What immediately got me wasn't whether Brad Pitt could survive the wilderness. Brad Pitt has survived practically everything Hollywood can throw at a man. I wanted to know whether Belmont deserved the loyalty of the dog walking beside him.

And perhaps that is why the relationship already feels so effective. A combat dog doesn't know your résumé. He doesn't care that you're Brad Pitt. He knows your breathing. Your fear. Your footsteps. The precise moment you're pretending to be okay.

That's intimacy cinema rarely knows how to write.

The canine character is officially Odin, played by Uber; Pitt is essentially the only primary human performer for much of the film, making that relationship unusually important to whether the movie succeeds.

The Companion Cut: The movie isn't out yet, so I wouldn't call this a review. I'd call it “Hollywoof First Look.” But Odin already has my attention.