Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Fudge-3 It is described as an adult fairy tale and that is true provided you understand it as the traditional definition of fairy tale. Anyway, that's what drew me in and I spent the first twenty minutes utterly bemused and the rest of the film completely transfixed. Toward the end of the movie I caught myself leaning in off my seat so as to not miss the end of the telling.Dean Spanley is funny, charming, bizarre and uplifting. An extraordinary collection of characters, perfectly portrayed with great acting are brought together in this delightful story.It's best watched with no idea of what's coming. So I'm not giving anything away. Who won't like this? Maybe cat ladies, sheep herders and anyone else who doesn't know the rules. Oh; and bunny rabbits, don't watch this if you are a bunny rabbit.

Peter Kettle Dean Spanley is certainly among the most delightful and subtle films I've seen for a long time. It is an unpretentious labour of love, a co-production of New Zealand and Britain, made partly with lottery money. Apart from being, in an entirely unsentimental way, the most interesting film about man and dogs, it is also brilliantly shot, wonderfully acted, and entirely lacking in all the ingredients a focus group or a big studio would demand. No heroics, indeed no hero; no sex; no violence; and no real drama. It has, instead, a wry humour, much deep imagination, and a series of fine performances by Sam Neill, Peter O'Toole, Bryan Brown, Jeremy Northam and the consistently wonderful Judy Parfitt. It has a great cameo by Dudley Sutton as well. It isn't a wonderful earth shatteringly important masterpiece in world cinema but it merits a burst of enthusiasm for its celebration of wit, humour, and the sadness all of us have to bear. The story comes from the short novel by Lord Dunsany, an odd writer who I admire. A widower (Peter O'Toole) cannot come to terms with his elder son's death in the Boer war and the subsequent demise of his wife. The question of dogs being reincarnated as humans arises over the consumption of a rare imperial Tokay. Richly atmospheric, this is a profound gem.

classicsoncall Admittedly, this won't be a film for everyone. Though it has a bit of a quirky premise and the dialog is cleverly humorous at times, the pacing is slower than what most viewers would expect from their movie fare. I got the biggest kick out of Peter O'Toole's character, Horatio Fiske. All you had to do was look at him; his facial expression throughout most of the picture was one of priceless quandary, often trying to make some semblance of sense of the efforts of his son and cohorts for the better part of the picture. Yet the payoff comes as Dean Spanley's life as a dog is brought home to reconcile the old man's feelings of loss over his son in the Boer War, followed by that of his grieving wife. If it's true, as the Swami Prash declares, that a dog amplifies Man's estimation of himself, then the story of Wag and his canine companion finally brings some measure of relief to a man whose heart had not yet hardened beyond repair.

ThatDoesntMatter I thought I might add an unfavourable review.This film just did not convince me story-wise.Maybe because I'm a dog lover?Also, the repressed British male relationship theme was not interesting to me - I'd rather watch The Remains Of The Day for that...Usually I like Sam Neill, but not in this. I found him annoying. Sorry, but that's the way I felt.The best this movie gave me - and that at least is for life (and beyond???:-)) is "Only a closed mind is certain" --> saw that as a signature on IMDb and then checked out the film.Sadly, it did not work for me at all. Boring. Preposterous. 3 stars for the good acting by all, but there it ends.