One can only applaud production companies willing to bankroll films as non-commercial as this. I'd be hard put to say exactly who its target audience is but I hope it finds it. It's something that could only be English despite strong elements of Hungary and Australia. It's probably just as well that the title is sufficiently insipid to bypass those in search of exploding heads and twisted metal and although I have just seen it at a Multiplex it has all the earmarks - one might even say dog-earmarks - of Art House fodder. To nutshell it we're in Edwardian England where Jeremy Northam pays a duty call each week on his eccentric father, Peter O'Toole. There had been another son who perished in the Boer War. Enter Dean Spanley, Sam O'Neill, who has a penchant for Tokay and a tendency to reminisce under its influence of the years he spent as a dog. Rounding out the principals is Bryan Brown, procurer of the hard-to-find Tokay and witness to the reminiscing. It comes together rather too well, perhaps, but remains laden with charm. Try and catch it if you're feeling pixilated.
Review of Dean Spanley
