Level 33 Entertainment
Starring: Kate Micucci, Sean Astin
Also Starring:  Pepper
Directed by: Finn Taylor

Cat Out of the Bag Alert!  This review contains some spoilers for this film!

Synopsis: A lonely woman named Emma (Kate Micucci) is close to her pet dog Summit (Riley) and her pet cat Ajax (Pepper) and wishes she could meet men like them. Little does she know her wish is about to come true!

Featured Feline: At the beginning of the film, tuxedo cat Ajax is seen as a kitten.

Ajax grows into a long-haired tuxedo. He and the dog Summit are rescue animals that Emma comes to visit on a regular basis. But she can’t adopt them because her boyfriend is allergic.

Her boyfriend not only runs out on Emma but steals the idea for her app, so she adopts Ajax and Summit and moves to San Francisco.

Emma builds her life again but has serious trust issues. She spends her life with her animals who she knows will never judge her or treat her badly.

She even sneaks Ajax and Summit into work with her.

In the bathroom at work Emma switches clothes with her friend Nina (Hana Mae Lee) to go on a date. Nina is amazed that Emma can get undressed in front of her cat and dog.

Unfortunately a rude bike rider knocks into Emma’s bike as she rides home.

Feeling dirty and disheveled, Emma is too embarrassed to go on the date and instead consoles herself listening to a sad playlist and dancing with Ajax.

Emma wishes she could meet guys like her pets. That night a mysterious light from the constellations fills her room and Summit and Ajax go outside.

The animals look up at the sky and moments later they are both transformed into men. Oddly enough the cat in the tree appears to be another member of the Ajax team without as much white. (Kudos to actors Justin Chatwin and Steve Howey for bringing believability to the human forms of Ajax aka Diego and Summit aka Sam respectively).

The now-humans vie for Emma’s affection and learn to adapt to the human world. In the end they are transformed back to their former selves. Ajax has told Emma that he is going stray for a while. Emma has now fallen for a nice guy named Carl (Sean Astin) who has helped her since she moved to San Francisco. He owns a tiny house on wheels and leaves the city every so often. As they prepare to go, Emma begs Ajax to come back from wherever he is. He is actually nearby, looking down at them.

They drive the tiny house to a secluded ocean-front spot and there Emma hears a noise in a cupboard. It is Ajax! There is a happy reunion.

In the end Ajax and Summit are seen watching TV, Ajax using the remote control he learned how to operate as a human and Summit licking at a bottle of tequila, something he indulged in while human.

Both cat actor Pepper and dog actor Riley were provided by Steven Beren’s Animals of Distinction. Oddly enough, the cat seen on the poster for the film is a black cat with a white chest and not Pepper.

Kitty Cameos:  There are also a couple of cats seen as rescue animals in the film.

Final Mewsings: Cats make better cats than people.

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