Set in1950's London, Frank Meadows (Alan Bates) is a gay middle-aged businessman who has a relationship with married Johnny (Gary Oldman). When Johnny is sent to prison for burglary, Frank offers to help out, meaning he's prepared to offer financial help. But Johnny asks Frank to take care of his Alsatian dog, Evie, and Frank immediately refuses. Frank later has reason to regret his refusal. While Johnny is behind bars, his beloved German Shepherd Evie becomes the center of a heated custody battle between himself, his wife Megan (Frances Barber), his mother Millie (Liz Smith), his stepfather Tom (Max Wall), and finally Frank. While Millie and Tom are busily worshipping Dickie (Ryan Batt), Johnny's baby, Evie is neglected and mistreated. Frank begins to take an interest in Evie, becoming more enamoured with the scene-stealing dog than he is with Johnny. Suddenly everyone is fighting to keep the dog, and yet no one really wants her. A set of tragi-comic relationships evolve with the dog representing the hold they have over each other. The story explores the characters' ability to make their own and other's lives miserable through their fear of freedom and inability to fulfill their dreams.
Gary Oldman as the weasel-like Johnny is great in his role. Alan Bates is wonderful as Frank--the man who gets mixed up with people he wished he'd never met. But it's the story of Frank's relationship with Evie that makes the film. This is not a sentimental animal movie, it's about love and possession. The phrase "we think the world of you" crops up throughout the film. Frank is sick of hearing it, as it becomes a term used to cloak and excuse all sorts of neglect and abandonment. Love and commitment in the film exist only between Frank and Evie, and while this movie is funny, it also has serious overtones. Julian Jacobson composed the original music, and Hugh Stoddart wrote the screenplay based on a semi-autobiographical novel by Joseph R. Ackerley, one of the first modern authors to come out as openly gay. The film was directed by Colin Gregg.
