Anyone who longs to enjoy life must learn to live with limitations-- emotional limits, intellectual limits, physical limits, and so on. Each of us has the potential for personal growth that promises to increase our-- emotional stability, intellectual capacity, physical agility. It is inevitable that we will face situations that will test or break our limitations. When it happens, we'll gain firsthand knowledge of the adage: "The straw that broke the camel's back."The proverbial straw pushes a woman's (Heather Morgan) sanity beyond the limits of her emotional normalcy. As a result, she believes she's the family's pet pooch! Bark! shows the agony of breaking the boundaries of one's emotional limits. Through the use of well-timed and strategically placed flashbacks, the director (Kasia Adamik) unfolds the story of an emotionally wounded person who is losing her grip on reality. Each flashback provides a peek into the progression of pressures that damaged her psyche so deeply that she transformed herself into a dog. They also reveal the origins of her habitual barking. Not for nothing, it isn't easy to train a dog to stop nuisance barking. One quick trip to PetSmart for a High Tech Bark Terminator 3 bark control collar would remedy her incessant barking. A few jolts from it and the movie's title would be meaningless.Her husband (Lee Tergesen) struggles to comprehend what is happening inside the mind of his life-partner. POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT: I was extremely frustrated by the husband's reluctance toward committing his wife into a mental health facility. The character was deeply despaired and willing to try anything to aid his ailing wife. Sure, I get the joke in regard to finding a veterinarian to treat his pet wife.Bark! is funny in a subtle, comical way. Bark! is sad in a sullen, painful way. Most of all, Bark! is entertaining in a caring, thoughtful way. So, as the daily pressures of life begin building up, take a step back, and review your limitations--then ask yourself: "What is my barking point?"

Lee Tergesen and Heather Morgan saved the movie. Both actors played their parts beautifully. The movie has a very intelligent, sensitive story line, comedy only in the traditional sense - no one dies. Was pleased also that it was not a traditional "happy, Hollywood" ending.Especially loved Lee "standing up" to the Psycho MD… won't give away the rest.Lisa Kudrow was Kudrow… Is she really that ditzy in real life, that she's always cast in absolute idiot roles? And what was with Vincent D'Onofrio? Have never seen him before so I don't know if he's just yet another idiot. His character was such a caricature. What were all those "lunatic" people there for? They didn't really add anything to the plot. The plot stood on it's own. The "nuts" were superfluous.Despite all but two of the cast, the movie is worth seeing. The theme of mental illness is extremely well and sensitively portrayed.

I seldom have an opportunity to view a creative and well-thought out script along with good acting. This movie was very unique in that it combined a serious stigmatized mental health disorder with a most sublime dry humor, keeping the content and subject material "real" for seriousness, but light enough to prevent the sad theme of the wife's condition from being a frustrating and intolerable viewing experience. How does one approach a subject or define what a nervous breakdown is? This movie does this tactfully, and allows more viewers to accept this condition more in this stigmatized and stereotyped society today. The author/scriptwriter and director didn't "force" the viewer to suffer, but made watching a pleasant experience. I wouldn't say this movie/author/script-writer was Kafka, but sure is close. How does the wife metamorphasize into a dog instead of a cockroach as Kafka's "Metamorphosis?" Unique "ironic" parallel in style here.Casting done for this movie was outstanding and each actor and actress played their parts superbly. The veterinarian (girlfriend) reminded me of Terri Garr, similar in other wife roles of acting giving in her demeanor and appearance a sweet and innocent kind of support character and not a total frustratingly dumb blonde role. The husband ending up having numerous other "acorns" as presented in the movie (and what is an acorn, but another nut) that fell closely from other unknown family trees than his own wife's acorn family tree land in his living room as his wife vegetates under medication adds the additional, appropriate and well-timed humor relief along with giving a temporary surrealistic panorama to/for the audience's viewing. I would be hard-pressed to define "black humor" with definitive lines to apply to this movie and all of its' numerous and variable characterizations. I suppose it depends on how a person would debate Kafka's style of writing that no movie-maker yet has been able to accomplish to portray. This movie makes a dandy good job in doing so. I rate this movie in the same/similar artsie imaginative and creative art classification as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. It is EEEEExcellent and very "sweet" overall. In face of adultery by the husband and his wife's obvious will-never-return-to-normalcy, he continues to stay by his wife's side as a most devoted husband. Unconditional love has a strong theme underlying this movie keeping it well afloat. I laughed a lot and loved this movie for its' topic, characters, hidden or ironic type deephumor, imagination, creativity, good acting, timing ... everything worked and came together to NOT give a viewer a frustrating experience,but one that is more than satisfyingly enjoyabe and sweetly thought-provoking.

If you choose the movie Bark based on the trailer or the video/DVD box cover, you are probably going to be disappointed. The movie is only a comedy in the most traditional sense of the word: for instance, it concludes with a beautiful celebration where all the characters are gathered together. It is not a comedy of crass jokes or goofy gags. And is it a romance movie? Again, hardly in the way the promoters advertise it to be. Bark is, however, a loving look at the tragi-comedy of the human condition. Obviously, I liked this movie very much. It moved along well yet had many "timeless" moments. It did not make a big deal of itself. It depicted its characters and their troubles with warmth and kindness, yet was not sappy. I am thankful to those who created this movie, for their intelligence and tenderness toward the whole situation of mental illness. Anyone who has known someone who has "lost it" -- and really that must be all of us by now -- will appreciate this movie for its story. As for the tone, I would say that it has more in common with something like Woody Allen's Crimes and Misdemeanors -- another "romantic comedy" which was much more than that phrase generally seems to mean nowadays.