Although released under the Fox Faith banner, Ace of Hearts is a heart-warming family film that could easily take its place alongside such standard children’s fare as “Eight Below” and “Old Yeller.” The movie features Dean Cain (“Lois and Clark”) as the human half of a K-9 police unit whose partnership with a police dog, Ace, is causing him to neglect both his wife and his daughter.
Despite his neglect, both wife and daughter remain unswervingly loyal to Cain’s Officer Dan Harding, especially when a controversial take-down by Ace seems to prove him uncontrollable and a biter; Cain doesn’t want to believe it, and his daughter only wants to see him happy again, so she launches her own unlikely investigation into the crime in which Ace allegedly bit a criminal.
Even though he was apparently euthanized shortly after the biting incident, Ace makes his escape an tries to reunite with his family in time to keep them safe from the criminal Ace took down. Like most children’s movies, the daughter has the surprising ability to be a better investigator and fact-finder than her experienced, well-trained father, and whenever danger threatens, a rescue never arrives too late to save the day.
Despite this, the film has just enough action to appeal to boys and well as girls, and the film is entertaining enough to make watching it enjoyable for adults as well, even though the film lacks much edginess. Of course, few films in the Fox Faith family sport much edginess, so no surprise there.
Cain’s daughter is ably portrayed by Britt McKillip, who Showtime watchers might recognize as Reggie Lass, the “invisible” sister of Ellen Muth’s George Lass on the cable drama Dead Like Me (which is soon transforming into a major motion picture, barring any of the principles undergoing drug treatment, by the way). As Julia, she fits the young female heroine role well, and shed of her Dead Line Me classes and ponytails, is almost unrecognizable in this role.
The story, unfortunately, is thin and predictable stuff, but not so much as to be insulting. While hardly a classic, “Ace of Hearts” makes agreeable, if not exactly memorable, family viewing.
Tags: Ace of Hearts, Britt McKillip, Dead Like Me, Dean Cain, drug treatment
