Fluke (film)

Fluke
Fluke Movie Poster
Directed by	Carlo Carlei
Produced by	Tom Coleman Jon Turtle
Written by	James Herbert (novel) Carlo Carlei James Carrington
Narrated by	Matthew Modine
Starring	Matthew Modine Samuel L. Jackson Max Pomeranc Nancy Travis Ron Perlman Jon Polito Bill Cobbs
Music by	Carlo Siliotto
Cinematography	Raffaele Mertes
Editing by	Mark Conte
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date(s)	June 2, 1995
Running time	96 min.
Country	USA
Language	English
Budget	$15 million
Box office	$3,987,649

Fluke is a 1995 film directed by Carlo Carlei and starring Matthew Modine, Eric Stoltz, Nancy Travis, Max Pomeranc and the voice of Samuel L. Jackson. Bill Cobbs, Ron Perlman, and Jon Polito co-star. It was based on the novel of the same name by James Herbert.

Synopsis

The story is centered on a puppy named Fluke (voiced by Sam Gifaldi, and played by Golden Retrievers), who has flashing memories and dreams of a human life. After being taken to a pound, and eventually escaping from it, he is raised by an elderly homeless woman named Bella (Collin Wilcox Paxton), who gives him the name Fluke, stating that he's "a fluke by nature, and by name."

After Bella dies of an illness caused by poor conditions, he befriends a street-wise St. Bernard-like dog named Rumbo (voiced by Samuel L. Jackson). During this time he matures into an adult dog (now voiced by Matthew Modine), and he eventually realizes that he used to be a workaholic named Thomas P. Johnson (also portrayed by Matthew Modine) who died in a car crash.

Fluke is then abducted by a man named Sylvester (Ron Perlman) to be used in animal experiments at a cosmetics company. During the tests, Rumbo comes to the rescue. Rumbo is shot by Sylvester as he and Fluke escape. A dying Rumbo tells Fluke that the black-and-white snapshot of a man in a sailor suit was him. He's also told that as a human, Bert (Bill Cobbs) (a man who feeds Fluke and Rumbo) was his brother and that he wishes to smell the sea again, suggesting that he died in the line of duty.

After Rumbo's death, Fluke seeks out his wife (Nancy Travis) and son (Max Pomeranc) and reunites with them as their dog. Fluke tries to show them who he used to be, at the same time suspecting that his human death was caused by his former business partner Jeff Newman (Eric Stoltz). It's during his time among them as a dog that he gets to know his family better and bitterly realizes that he was an emotionally distant workaholic.

However, he comes close to killing Jeff, but at the last minute has a flashback and realizes that Jeff wasn't involved in his death - his death was caused by his own recklessness. Fluke finally manages to point out to his wife who he really is (by digging away the snow covering his tomb stone and pointing out the word "forever" at the bottom, something that in life, he had often said to his wife). With a heavy heart, he decides it's better to move on; the man he used to be is dead and gone. So he leaves his family, never seeing them again. He realizes that life is simply meant to be cherished, regardless of how one lives it.

Far away, Fluke is resting under a tree by himself. To his surprise, he encounters Rumbo, who is now reincarnated as a squirrel.

Reception

Reviews of Fluke were mixed with film review website Rotten Tomatoes tallying only 33% of its collected reviews as positive, giving the film a label of "Rotten". Despite these poor reviews both Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel gave it thumbs up [1]. However, Fluke has received by the users of the Internet Movie Database a rate of 62%. In addition to IMDb, Allmovie's reviewer Mark Deming gave to the film 3/5 stars. Fluke underperformed at the box office, generating just under $4 million dollars in the American box office. Fluke also was nominated in 1996 by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films for Best Fantasy Film and Best Performance by a Younger Actor for Max Pomeranc.

External links

• Fluke at the Internet Movie Database
• Fluke at AllRovi
• Fluke at Rotten Tomatoes
• Fluke at Box Office Mojo