Bealtaine Special Screening: Dean Spanley
Director: Toa Fraser / New Zealand, UK / 2008 / 100 minutes /Certificate G
Cast : Peter O’Toole, Jeremy Northam, Sam Neill, Judy Parfitt, Bryan Brown
This is a charming and eccentric little family comedy for the older generation.
Based on a little-known 1936 novella by the Irish author Baron Dunsany, Dean Spanley stars Jeremy Northam as Fisk, an Edwardian publisher who is exasperated by his cantankerous father, played by Peter O'Toole: a dotty yet powerful performance. Fisk's older brother was killed in the Boer war and his mother died of a broken heart soon after, but Fisk Sr refuses to grieve.
His son makes the acquaintance of Dean Spanley (Sam Neill), a peppery and somewhat Trollopian churchman, and he is astonished to discover that the dean is the reincarnation of a bizarre departed soul - a soul who may, by declaring himself, allow dad to rediscover his emotions. It is odd, yet amusing, and O'Toole and Neill both give very nice performances. – Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
“Fraser’s delightfully eccentric and ultimately touching film set in Edwardian England features O’Toole on sublime form as an irascible curmudgeon...” - Michael Dwyer, The Irish Times
“What an eccentric, absorbing and rewarding film this is....Delightful” - David Cheal, The Telegraph
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