An old dog has new tricks
Lassie doesn't shoot baskets like the star of "Air Bud" or solve mysteries like the break-dancing Scooby Doo. But the collie that became a star back in 1943 can still make you cry and cheer in the all-new "Lassie."
OK, so those who remember the original "Lassie Come Home" movie (with a 10-year-old Elizabeth Taylor) and the television series, in which Lassie saved the accident-prone Timmy on a weekly basis, may feel they've seen every trick in this dog's book.
But director Charles Sturridge, so good with the emotional complexities of Evelyn Waugh's "Brideshead Revisited," makes it new again by stacking the cast with acting heavyweights and restoring Yorkshire authenticity to this adaptation of Eric Knight's novel.
Lassie, the beloved dog of a young boy, Joe (played with touching vulnerability by Jonathan Mason), catches the eye of a wealthy duke (Peter O'Toole) and his granddaughter (Hester Odgers) in Yorkshire. At first, Joe's parents won't sell the dog that runs faithfully to meet their son every day after school. But when Joe's dad loses his job in the coal mine, they don't know what else to do.
Lassie keeps trying to escape her posh new digs to get back to her boy, prompting the duke to take her to his castle in Scotland. But Lassie makes another break for it, setting off on a long journey to England, eluding dogcatchers and braving nature in a quest to find her way home.
Sturridge takes a gamble by meticulously crafting an old-fashioned, classically acted movie filmed against a sweeping, turn of the century-style backdrop for a generation of kids that has grown up on the bright colors and sassy wit of a CGI-animated world. The stars aren't exactly draws to the under-12 crowd either. How many know the ever-charismatic O'Toole or the exquisite Samantha Morton, who plays Joe's mom, much less John Lynch who conveys a world of dignity and repressed pain as Joe's hard-pressed dad?
And then there's Peter Dinklage, who creates a magical world of his own as a traveling puppeteer who shows some kindness to the starved and lonely dog.
Perhaps it all comes down to whether there is still a place for a well told, eloquently acted film that doesn't come with much hype or tie-in toys. You might be surprised at how much the kids like it if you can persuade them to give it a try.
<B>TITLE:</B> "Lassie"<B>DIRECTOR:</B> Charles Sturridge<B>CAST:</B> Peter O'Toole, Samantha Morton, Peter Dinklage, John Lynch and Jonathan Mason<B>RATED:</B> PG (for some mild violent content and language)<B>GRADE</B>: 3½ Stars (out of 5)
