Despite animals migrating hundreds if not thousands of miles every year to mating grounds or warmer climes and then back again, people are always amazed when pets manage to find their way back home after being left behind, moved or are otherwise accidentally transported from one place to the next.
Probably the most famous story about such an animal endeavor was penned by British-American writer Eric Knight in the Saturday Evening Post way back in 1938. Starting as a short story and then adapted into a full novel in 1940, "Lassie Come Home" became such a hit that it was turned into a movie of the same name in 1943 starring Roddy McDowall.
That then spawned some sequels, various TV series (one of which ran for decades in the U.S., albeit occasionally altered in concept as it went along) and even a phrase most owners still ask their pets when they seem to be in communicative form: "What is it girl? Is Timmy stuck in the well?"
Appropriately enough, the collie does a bit of migrating back to the big screen -- in terms of plot and getting back to her creative origins -- in "Lassie," a Brit-made family drama that returns the story and its pooch to its pre-WWII roots and locale.
As in the novel, separation is the central theme here. That not only involves the boy -- a heartbreakingly sad looking but cute Jonathan Mason as Joe Carraclough -- and his dog being split up for a long period of time and even greater miles, but also that boy and his female counterpart -- Hester Odgers playing precocious, but thankfully not in the commonly irritating fashion -- being separated from their dads who've gone off to prepare for war.
Thankfully, neither angle turns maudlin, and parents and kids alike will probably respond emotionally to those separation issues. That said, it never gets terribly complicated as the two-storyline plot (alternating between the boy and girl's disparate yet related lives) spreads out into a three-way affair once the title character breaks free (once more) and sets out on a several-hundred mile trek back home.
And it sometimes feels like a product from a bygone era (possibly making some parents think their kids might find it antiquated and/or boring). Yet, it will likely engage most viewers, especially if they've ever owned, loved, and/or lost a pet (don't worry, almost everything turns out happy at the end, save for one canine headed for the great fire hydrant in the sky).
The latter involves a brief subplot featuring Peter Dinklage ("Find Me Guilty," "The Station Agent") in yet another terrific performance, this time playing a diminutive traveling puppeteer who has a great love for dogs, briefly taking in Lassie alongside his own, show-performing pooch. His character nicely counters the mean kennel handler played by Steve Pemberton (all such kids films need a "good" villain), and this interlude occurs during what I call the Forrest Gump part of the film.
That's when the dog manages to break free from the villain -- who works for the rascally nobleman played by Peter O'Toole looking a bit frail but up for the role with a twinkle in his eye and spirit -- and then sets out on a road trip of sorts where she encounters Dinklage's character (the best subplot of the bunch), along with an assortment of others.
Aside from a brief bit featuring Nessie in Loch Ness (writer/director Charles Sturridge opting to go for a bit of humor here, including a bit of computer-animation to create the "monster" swimming by), however, there's no real historical significance to the meetings. But the Gump analogy comes from Lassie's brief encounters with various characters along her cross-country journey.
As well as the others previously mentioned, John Lynch and particularly Samantha Morton are good as young Joe's dirt-poor parents, but this show's otherwise really gone to the dogs (and that's a good thing). I couldn't find any info on the pedigree (or gender) of the pooch (or, most likely, pooches) that plays the part, but this dog can act. Happy, sad, healthy, or ailing, you'll believe every moment of the canine performance, and some cute, bit-character dogs are icing on the cake.
Not straying far from Knight's story, Sturridge has crafted an old-fashioned yarn that touches on a variety of emotions without trampling them via any sort of overwrought direction, artificiality (notwithstanding the brief Loch Ness Monster bit), or cloyingness.
With good performances all around, solid production design, and just the right nuanced touch in pushing any animal lover's buttons, "Lassie" admirably succeeds as a throwback to how films were once made. Forget all those pooch imitators of recent -- this is the doggone real deal, and it rates as a 7 out of 10.
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