Dir. John Henderson, UK, 2005, 103 mins
Cast: James Cosmo, Oliver Golding, Gina McKee, Thomas Lockyer, Greg Wise, Ardal O’Hanlon, Sean Pertwee, Christopher Lee
Review by Carol Allen
Greyfriars Bobby, according to Edinburgh lore, was the name of a devoted dog, who after his master's death in 1858 kept watch over his grave in Greyfriars churchyard, until his own death 14 years later. There was a Disney version of the story made in 1960, based on the book by American Eleanor Atkinson, but for this film co-writer/director John Henderson has gone back to the original newspaper story, which started the legend, taking the known facts and then creating a persuasive if largely fictional series of very engaging characters.
Bobby is the much loved companion of policeman John Gray (Thomas Lockyer). The film opens with a David and Goliath type sequence of Bobby defending his master against an escaped bull, which is causing mayhem in a street market. The incident also creates a friendship between Gray and Ewan (Golding) a young boy, whom Gray and his wife Maureen (McKee) take under their matrimonial wing. When Gray dies as a result of a stab wound in the course of his duties, Ewan looks after the dog, who insists on taking up residence at his late master's grave, earning his keep by catching rats in the graveyard. But the local wicked capitalists in the form of factory owner Smithie (Sean Pertwee) and cold as charity Commissioner Johnson (Ronald Pickup) have got it in for Bobby, who has become not only a much loved local character but something of an anti-authoritarian symbol for the poverty stricken working class. When Bobby helps Ewan escape from the poorhouse, where he has been incarcerated after his mother dies and the furious Johnson sets the dogcatcher onto the dog, Ewan and his friends appeal to the Lord Provost of Edinburgh (Christopher Lee) to use his powers to save Bobby from being destroyed.
Shot on a low budget, using cinematic ingenuity instead of expensive special effects and relying on good writing and acting, this is a delightful little film, which is funny, touching and never soppy. It has a strong ensemble cast of reliable actors, which also includes James Cosmo as the Greyfriars sexton, Greg Wise as the minister and Ardal O'Hanlon as the eccentric street dweller Coconut Tam, all of whom become staunch allies of Bobby. Pertwee and Pickup are a thoroughly hissable pair of Victorian villains and Lee plays his cameo role with relish. The real star is of course Bobby himself, a West Highland terrier, who is actually the family pet of dog trainer Gerry Cott. With a little help from Henderson's clever camera angles, Bobby gives a great debut performance, which will have the audience rooting for him. The slim budget sometimes makes for a bit of confusion, as in a sequence where Ewan's tenement home collapses, which is so closely shot it's difficult to work out exactly what is going on and the streets of Edinburgh (actually Stirling Castle standing in) sometimes look a bit quaint rather than poverty stricken, but the poorhouse is suitably grim and Dickensian and overall Henderson's skill and imagination makes for a classy and charming little family film, which adults should enjoy as much as children.
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