Hachi: A Dog's Tale (2009)

A film based loosely on a real-life dog famous for waiting years for a dead master does not sound like a good time. Do you even have a reason to watch, or is knowing that it exists enough? Well, its continued presence on IMDb's top 250 told me to check it out.

The most obvious departure from the truth lies in the setting: The real Hachiko lived in Japan in the 1920s and '30s, not some unidentified corner of the U.S. in the '90s and 2000s. In this telling, an Akita puppy gets shipped from Japan and breaks loose in a train station. The next human he meets, dance instructor Parker Wilson (Richard Gere), decides to take care of him temporarily, but the rightful owner never calls and Parker learns to love Hachi enough that Mrs. Wilson (Joan Allen) gives up on finding a substitute. The occasional narrator is Parker's grandson (Kevin DeCoste), now a preteen, who doesn't remember Hachi personally but deems the dog his hero.