At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

This is actually a dog movie. It's also about getting over a loss. The more times you watch it, the more things become clear, because it's more complex than just a story about a guy who was a dog in a past life.The first time I watched it, I didn't know where the movie was going, and it does start slow. The surviving son of a crotchety old man is doing is weekly visit with his father, who has no appreciation for it. Then Dean Spanley comes into the picture.I love this movie. It will surprise you, and it's got a wonderful ending.

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.

Despite its lofty pedigree (it's based on a novel by Lord Dunsany), formidable cast and handsome period locations, this 100-minute shaggy dog story long overstays its welcome and left us feeling disappointed. The premise is that Horatio Fisk (Peter O'Toole), a cranky old gentleman in Edwardian London, is unable to mourn the death of his wife and son, the latter killed in the Boer War, or to make any emotional connection with his surviving son, a subdued Jeremy Northam, who supplies the voice-over narration. The problem turns out to be that the old man's never recovered from the loss of his beloved dog, a spaniel called Wag, when he was a boy. The younger Fisk discovers, through a lengthy investigation that takes up the first and much more involving half of the film, that an otherwise sober and uninteresting clergyman, W.A.G. Spanley (Sam Neill), when plied with a glass or three of vintage tokay, can hold an audience spellbound with his reminiscences of a previous life as a dog… I'm guessing the original tale has been brushed up a bit by veteran screenwriter Alan Sharp in accordance with contemporary notions of closure and father-son bonding, and Neill does a great job with his big scene as Wag the dog, but the film had lost momentum by that point and the attempted feel-good ending totally failed to connect with us. Neill, a part-time Kiwi, seems to have attracted some NZ Film Board funds to this admirable-in-principle but unsuccessful venture.

We found Dean Spanley by surfing Comcast On Demand and were delighted by this witty, thought-provoking and emotional film. It's based on a story by Lord Dunsany, a writer who "imaginatively transforms materials from The Arabian Nights, classical mythology, Celtic, Germanic, and Hindu folklore as well as from medieval lays and quest romances." The cast is amazing for a New Zealand film, the script is excellent, the acting is superb and the climactic scene is totally gripping for all that it takes place in a dinner-table conversation. American film makers should take note of how this is done -- but they won't. Peter O'Toole should get an Oscar for his performance as Fisk Senior -- but he won't. We should all be able to see more movies like Dean Spanley -- but I'm not holding my breath. Don't let that keep you from enjoying this terrific movie. Four enthusiastic thumbs-up for Dean Spanley. (Dean is a title, not a name.)