How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog

Critically acclaimed playwright Peter McGowen (Branagh) has fallen on hard times after a string of flops and is feeling the pressure from his sunny-natured wife Melanie (Wright Penn) to have kids. He's trying to fix his latest work but his neighbor's incessantly barking dog keeps him awake nights. The grouch also finds he must befriend a neighbor's daughter, Amy (Hofrichter), because he needs a model for the child role in his play, although Amy's presence does some not entirely unexpected reexamination of Peter and Melanie's marriage. Branagh is amusingly sharp-tongued but the film has a squishy center.