Rent Dean Spanley (2008)

Best in show! - Dean Spanley review by Colin Taylor

Not to everyone's taste perhaps, but I thought it was a beautiful film, so much so that I watched it twice in one day. The acting is exquisite, the script is perfect;the long last scene at the dinner party is quite perfectly done. It's gentle, its moving,its thoughtful; its a real treat. I watch all sorts of films,but this really stood out for me. More meat on the bone than many action films, or any predictable costume drama....Peter O'Toole at the top of his game, a great role for Sam Neill, and Jeremy Northam too, what's not to like?

Didn't get it. - Dean Spanley review by JD

This style of humour didn't hit my funny bone. It relies on the silliness of believing that Sam Neill's character was a dog in a previous life and that Peter O'Toole's was the owner. I on the other hand saw it as the mocking of the eccentricities of a priest when he is drunk. Awkward and not pleasant. If you can laugh at other's shortcomings and go along with the idea that an elderly man can change in a moment from cynical to gullible then let yourself go. On the positive side there are moderately entertaining sub-plots and the acting is good.

Enchanting and old-fashioned - Dean Spanley review by AER

I saw this on release at the cinema and over the intervening years so many people have asked me if I've seen it. It's a real small-scale gem of the type of film we see get made so rarely anymore. The cast is great especially Peter O'Toole (in his last cinema role?) Dog lovers will fall in love with the way the script and performances skewer what's great about being dog and the way it tunes into a dogs head space with out anthromorphosising it. Sam Neill is expert in this. It's a delight to see actors that you don't see all that often anymore in funny and rewarding roles like Bryan Brown, Judy Parfitt, Art Malik, Ramon Tikaram, and even Jeremy Northam (where's he gone?)

Great gentle fun for dog lovers. Some might find it old hat and too quaint.

9 out of 10