Dean Spanley

The most appealing aspect of this film, the only reason I saw it, is that it features Peter O’Toole, a remarkable actor, one of the few that has been consistently good for many, many years now, he has been all over the advertisements for this film, and the trailer certainly stressed his place in the cast, so it was disappointing to find that Peter O’Toole is barely in the film, this hurts the film, as it is meant to be a comedy, but the only funny parts occur with O’Toole’s character, the rest of the film is dialogue heavy, the narrative simply comprised of conversations Jeremy Northam has with Sam Neill and Bryan Brown, and there is no particular kick or wit to the writing to make it worthwhile, and with such a dull screenplay there is nothing particularly noteworthy about the visual style either, as I was working in the cinema, a woman asked me if her children would enjoy the film, I knew they would be bored to tears so I responded, “It depends of their tastes.”