The Mouse Hunt deals with two brothers who are trying to get a single mouse out of a large house that they’ve inherited, but to no avail as the mouse keeps outwitting them.
At one point, they go to an animal shelter to get a cat to solve the problem. But before they get in to speak with the clerk, we see a little girl being led away by a parent as she cries and howls for her cat; evidently said cat has just been turned in at the shelter. I didn’t get to see the whole scene, so I’m wondering why this heartwrenching scene was included. In other words, does it have some connection with the story? I’m pretty sure it wasn’t the little girl’s cat that the two brothers end up taking home with them.
Let me say here that when it comes to this type of thing my heart is approximately the consistency of a pound of butter in the furnace room; I’d hate to think that this pathetic scene was included for no good reason.
I dunno – I think they were just trying to set up the atmosphere for the animal shelter which was this bizarre maximum security sort of place in order to emphasize that they were getting the meanest of the mean kitties.
But it came off as just more of the unremittingly grim atmosphere of the whole movie.
I think this was a case of a movie where the tone was always just a bit flatter and darker than the movie makers had intended. In my opinion, the result was a movie that was too dark and unfunny for kids and too stupid and unfunny for adults. But that might just be me.