the joys of dogdom

[chewy]

DEAN SPANLEY-2008-young fisk visits his father every thursday.  they appear to have an uneasy relationship.  dad is a hardheaded, not an affectionate, old man.

has never xpressed much if any grief over the death of his wife, or other son killed in the boer wars.

the only thing he ever seemed to really care about was a dog he once had, one of the 7 great dogs in the world.

one thursday, to relieve the tension of his usual visits, young fisk takes his father to a lecture, given by a swami, on reincarnation.

they encounter a couple of other gentleman, one being dean spanley.

young fisk is fascinated by the fact that spanley, a man in a clerical collar, seems to believe in reincarnation.

eventually he invites the dean to dinner, wishing to discuss this idea in more detail as the dean tells him-"only the closed mind is certain"

the dean only agrees after young fisk promises the dean have a bottle of a very rare, expensive wine the dean is fond of.

after a couple of glasses, young fisk gets more than he could have imagined, the dean begins to speak of his former life as...

a dog.

of course, young fisk is stunned, but wants to hear more.  he keeps inviting the dean to dinner with more of his favorite drink and the tale gets more detailed.

eventually fisk is cajoled into inviting another guy to dinner, who's been helping him procure the drink, he wants to hear this tale too.

 

at one the dinners, dean reveals that his dog name was wag, you probably guessed it, that's the name of fisk the elder's dog.

this movie was billed as a comedy, indeed i found it very amusing, rather than ha ha funny, until fisk takes dean to his dad's for dinner.

there after a couple of drinks, and some urging from young fisk, dean begins his dog tales.  this scene was hilarious, everything dean said was the exact story, from wag's point of view that told fisk always told.  the look on his face-peter o'toole-was so funny.

it ended up being a very humorous, off beat tale with a touching ending.

i really liked it,  my description probably makes it sound like a really dumb film, i hope not, i think many here might enjoy it.

loved the dialogue.  good, interesting characters.  good cast, my memory is kind of shot, but some really good, well known actors, besides o,toole

4 chews out of 5

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CHEWY -

I believe we're going to be dead a lot longer than we're alive, so anything you like you should do to excess.

Sandman Slim