Choice Films
Starring: Ralph Macchio, Gina Gershon
Also Starring: Baxter
Directed by: Anthony Tarsitano
Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film!
Synopsis: A guy named Dominic (Ralph Macchio) who always plays it safe comes face to face with some crazy neighborhood people as he searches for his wife’s cat Leonard.
Featured Feline: The film opens with a door opening and a black cat being let out with the door shut behind him.
The black cat’s name is Leonard and he can’t be found the next day. Dominic’s wife Connie (Gina Gershon) has to be with her mother for a procedure in the hospital and orders Dominic to find Leonard. Dominic enlists the aid of his friend Ponce (David Zayas) to go around the neighborhood and look for Leonard. As they leave the house, Leonard appears from within the garage, then scurries off.
Leonard turns up again unseen outside a bar as Dominic tries to avoid getting dragged into a fight with a crazy patron.
The search for Leonard takes Dominic on a strange tour around town. After looking for much of the movie, Dominic lies down on a park bench to rest. Leonard runs right underneath the bench, again unseen.
Shortly after this Dominic spots two young thugs in an alley holding a black cat which turns out to be Leonard. They appear to be planning to hang the poor kitty.
Dominic stops the kids by throwing a roll of toilet paper at them. They don’t take him seriously, even when he pulls a gun on them.
Dominic accidentally fires the gun and the one kid drops Leonard, who takes cover.
Leonard runs down an alley and Dominic takes chase.
After going through over some fences and through some yards, Dominic finally catches Leonard, just in time to witness some criminals he had dealt with earlier delivering some goods.
Dominic manages to sneak away but is then stopped by two police officers, one of whom he also met earlier in the day. He directs them to the crime going down nearby.
Dominic gets Leonard home then calls Connie to give her the good news.
That night Connie hugs Leonard and scolds him lovingly.
Leonard is seen twice more, once with Dominic and Connie in bed and later looking out the window, maybe wishing her were back out in the world doing more exploring.
Leonard was played, at least in part, by cat actor Baxter, who was trained by Dawn Animal Agency. A stuffed stunt cat also acted as a stand-in for some scenes.
Final Mewsings: Cats are not known to play it safe.
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