All roads are leading to the Mayflower Dog Show, the most prestigious doggie event in Philadelphia. In Florida Gerry and Cookie - Eugene Levy and Catherine O`Hara - are heading off in their mobile home with their little Norwich terrior Winky. There`s pain in the trip for Gerry because Cookie keeps on running into her ex-lovers who explicitly remember the past and seem to want a future too. Not great for a man with two left feet. Neurotic yuppie couple Meg and Hamilton - Parker Posey and Michael Hitchcock - are entering their Weimaraner Beatrice whom they believe has been traumatised by seeing them having sex Kama Sutra style. Gay New York couple Scott and Stefan - John Michael Higgins and Michael McKean - have a ball dressing for the event with their little Shih Tzu Miss Agnes, and buxom blond Sherri Ann, wife of a geriatric millionaire seems to be hitting it off rather well with their new lesbian dog trainer Christy - Jane Lynch. The loner in the midst is backwoods store owner Harlan Pepper played by the film`s co writer/director Christopher Guest who has high hopes for his bloodhound..For the couples at least, these aren`t dogs, they`re children....
Christopher Guest who co-wrote This is Spinal Tap and who made Waiting for Guffman is a fine satirist who doesn`t take cheap shots - well, not many anyway. Even while we`re laughing at his characters` pretentions and neuroses we`re becoming sympathetic towards them. And for anyone who doesn`t understand the finer points of dog shows there is a lamentably crass and ignorant television commentator played by Fred Willard who`s constantly corrected by his very proper British colleague - Jim Piddock. It`s quite an achievement for Guest and his cast who improvise to stunning effect.
