''Megan Leavey'' (also known as ''Rex'') is a 2017 American

biographical A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or c ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

directed by

Gabriela Cowperthwaite Gabriela Cowperthwaite (born 1971) is an American/Brazilian filmmaker. She has directed documentaries and feature films, and she also produces, edits, writes, and directs for television and documentary films. Her films often deal with social, cultu ...

and written by Pamela Gray,

Annie Mumolo Anne Marie Mumolo (born July 10, 1973) is an American actress, screenwriter, comedian, and producer, best known for co-writing the 2011 film '' Bridesmaids'' with Kristen Wiig, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award and a BAFTA for Bes ...

, and Tim Lovestedt, based on the true events about a young female Marine named Megan Leavey and a combat dog named Rex. The film stars

Kate Mara Kate Rooney Mara ( ; born February 27, 1983) is an American actress. She is known for work in television, playing reporter Zoe Barnes in the Netflix political drama ''House of Cards'' (2013–2014; 2016), computer analyst Shari Rothenberg in t ...

as the titular character, with

Edie Falco Edith Falco (born July 5, 1963) is an American actress. She is best known for portraying Carmela Soprano on the HBO series ''The Sopranos'' (1999–2007), and Nurse Jackie Peyton on the Showtime series ''Nurse Jackie'' (2009–2015). She also ...

, Common, Ramón Rodríguez, and

Tom Felton Thomas Andrew Felton (born 22 September 1987) is an English actor best known for playing Draco Malfoy in the film adaptations of the ''Harry Potter'' fantasy novels by J. K. Rowling. Born in Surrey, Felton began appearing in commercials and ...

in supporting roles. The film was released on June 9, 2017, by Bleecker Street, received positive reviews and grossed $14 million.

Plot

Megan Leavey is a

US Marine The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

corporal who served as a Military Police K9 handler. She was paired with

military working dog Dogs in warfare have a very long history starting in Ancient history, ancient times. From being trained in combat, to their use as scouts, sentries, Courier, messengers, mercy dogs, and Tracking (dog), trackers, their uses have been varied and s ...

Rex (E168). The pair served two deployments in

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

together. They were first deployed to Fallujah in 2005, and then to

Ramadi Ramadi ( ar, ٱلرَّمَادِي ''Ar-Ramādī''; also formerly rendered as ''Rumadiyah'' or ''Rumadiya'') is a city in central Iraq, about west of Baghdad and west of Fallujah. It is the capital and largest city of Al Anbar Governorate w ...

in 2006, where they were both wounded by an

improvised explosive device An improvised explosive device (IED) is a bomb constructed and deployed in ways other than in conventional military action. It may be constructed of conventional military explosives, such as an artillery shell, attached to a detonating mecha ...

. Leavey was awarded the

Purple Heart The Purple Heart (PH) is a United States military decoration awarded in the name of the President to those wounded or killed while serving, on or after 5 April 1917, with the U.S. military. With its forerunner, the Badge of Military Merit, ...

and the

Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal The Achievement Medal is a military decoration of the United States Armed Forces. The Achievement Medal was first proposed as a means to recognize outstanding achievement or meritorious service of military personnel who were not eligible to recei ...

with a

"V" device A "V" device is a metal capital letter "V" with serifs which, when worn on certain decorations awarded by the United States Armed Forces, distinguishes an award for heroism or valor in combat instead of for meritorious service or achievement. ...

denoting heroism in combat. In 2012, Rex developed

facial palsy Facial nerve paralysis is a common problem that involves the paralysis of any structures innervated by the facial nerve. The pathway of the facial nerve is long and relatively convoluted, so there are a number of causes that may result in facial ...

, which ended his bomb-sniffing duties. Leavey was able to adopt him through the intervention of Senator

Chuck Schumer Charles Ellis Schumer ( ; born November 23, 1950) is an American politician serving as Senate Majority Leader since January 20, 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, Schumer is in his fourth Senate term, having held his seat since 1999, an ...

, around April 2012. Rex died on December 22, 2012.

Cast

The real Megan Leavey is credited in the role of Female Drill Instructor #3, while Rex is portrayed by Varco, in an uncredited role.

Production

On August 7, 2015, it was announced that Gabriela Cowperthwaite would be directing a film about Megan Leavey, to be portrayed by actress

, and her military combat dog Rex. The script was written by Pamela Gray, with the help of Annie Mumolo, Tim Lovestedt, and Jordan Roberts. LD Entertainment would produce the film.

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as a ...

on the film began on October 12, 2015 in Charleston, South Carolina, including scenes filmed at

The Citadel The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, commonly known simply as The Citadel, is a public senior military college in Charleston, South Carolina. Established in 1842, it is one of six senior military colleges in the United States. ...

, with other scenes filmed in

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

and

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, with extensive desert and combat scenes shot in

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

Release

In January 2017, Bleecker Street acquired distribution rights to the film and set it for release on June 9, 2017.

Home release

The film was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

and

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

on September 5, 2017, from Universal Studios Home Entertainment. In the UK and Australia the film was released on DVD as ''Rex''.

Reception

Box office

''Megan Leavey'' was released alongside ''

It Comes at Night ''It Comes at Night'' is a 2017 American psychological horror film written and directed by Trey Edward Shults. It stars Joel Edgerton, Christopher Abbott, Carmen Ejogo, Kelvin Harrison Jr., and Riley Keough. The film focuses on a family hiding in ...

'' and '' The Mummy'' and was expected to gross around $3 million from 1,956 theaters in its opening weekend. It ended up grossing $3.8 million, finishing 8th at the box office.

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film has an approval rating of 85% based on 103 reviews, with an

average rating In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7 ...

of 6.8/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "''Megan Leavey'' honors its real-life subjects with a sensitive, uplifting drama whose honest emotion more than makes up for its mild approach to the story." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which assigns a normalized rating, the film has average score 66 out of 100, based on 25 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.

Awards

''Megan Leavey'' was among the 2017 films which were honored with the Truly Moving Picture Award at the

Heartland Film Festival The Heartland International Film Festival is a film festival held each October in Indianapolis, Indiana. The festival was first held in 1992, its goal is to "inspire filmmaker Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion pictu ...

References

External links

* {{Gabriela Cowperthwaite 2017 films American biographical drama films 2017 biographical drama films Films shot in South Carolina Biographical films about military personnel Drama films based on actual events Films about the United States Marine Corps War films based on actual events Iraq War films American war drama films 2017 war drama films Bleecker Street films LD Entertainment films Films about war dogs Animals of the United States Marine Corps Films set in 2005 Films set in 2006 Films directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite Films scored by Mark Isham 2017 directorial debut films 2017 drama films Films about veterans 2010s English-language films 2010s American films