ALLAN HUNTER at the Movies

DEAN SPANLEY may be the ultimate shaggy dog story. The plot is eccentric and the tone is decidedly whimsical, but if you can suspend your disbelief it blossoms into an incredibly touching tale of loss, grief and reconciliation.

It is beautifully written by Scot Alan (Rob Roy) Sharp and features an extremely talented ensemble led by Jeremy Northam, Sam Neill and the glorious, irrepressible Peter O’Toole.

Set in an Edwardian England fascinated by spiritualism and the possibility of reincarnation, Dean Spanley features Peter O’Toole in glorious form. His Horatio Fisk is a curmudgeonly widower who lives by his routine and doesn’t give a fig for the feelings of others. He has never quite recovered from his son’s death in the Boer War or the death of his wife shortly thereafter. His remaining son Fisk Jr (Northam) despairs of ever breaking through his father’s emotional reserve.

The film starts to develop in unexpected ways when Fisk Jr befriends Walter Spanley (Neill), an affable clergyman with a fondness for vintage Tokay wine. The two men share an interest in reincarnation and the transmigration of the soul.

Revealing any more of the story risks spoiling the pleasures that lie in store.

Filmed in England and New Zealand, Dean Spanley often looks as pretty as a picture, and proves to be an extremely civilised piece of storytelling, revelling in the precision of language and the complex workings of the human heart.

In places, this adaptation of the cult novel by Baron Dunsany is reminiscent of the James Joyce short story ‘The Dead’. Peter O’Toole is magnificent as he journeys from outlandish rascal to heartbroken old soul. There won’t be a dry eye in the cinema.

Selected nationwide release

Director: Toa Fraser
Cast: Jeremy Northam, Sam Neill, Peter O’Toole, Bryan Brown, Judy Parfitt, Art Malik, Ramon Tikaram
Screenwriter: Alan Sharp based on the novel My Talks With Dean Spanley by Baron Dunsany
Certificate: U
Running time: 100 mins
Country: UK/New Zealand
Year: 2008

© Allan Hunter, 2008