B

If you’re searching for really old-fashioned family entertainment, this is for you. In spirit it’s a remarkably faithful adaptation of Eric Knight’s 1938 book, which was famously filmed as “Lassie Come Home” in 1943, even if it toys with some of the episodes and leaves others out. Rich in lush Scottish landscapes, period detail, live-action canine heroics (no CGI trickery) and outgoing human emotion, “Lassie” is likely to prove way too much a throwback to appeal to today’s jaded audiences in what will probably be a very brief sojourn in theatres. And when it shortly makes its way to DVD, one has to wonder whether viewers will find it preferable to the classic MGM rendition. But that doesn’t mean it’s any less enjoyable.

The story is as familiar as an old glove. In the years immediately preceding the outbreak of World War II, Lassie is the beloved pet of young Joe Carraclough (Jonathan Mason), greeting him at the schoolyard fence every afternoon. But when Joe’s father Sam (John Lynch) loses his job in the Yorkshire mines, he and Joe’s mother Sarah (Samantha Morton) must agree to accept an offer from the local nobleman, the duke of Rudling (Peter O’Toole), to buy the dog for his granddaughter Cilia (Hester Odgers). Despite the efforts of brutal trainer Eddie Hynes (Steve Pemberton), however, Lassie keeps working her way out of her cage and running home; and even after she’s taken from Yorkshire to northernmost Scotland, she escapes to make her way back to Joe. The remainder of the film is devoted to her adventures on the road, including a long-distance encounter with a couple of cricket fanatics (Edward Fox and John Standing) trying to find the Loch Ness monster, a run-in with a couple of inept dog-catchers in Glasgow that ends literally in a courtroom, and most notably a stint with a traveling puppeteer (Peter Dinklage). Of course there’s a happy but tear-filled ending, beginning, entirely appropriately, on Christmas Eve and leading to much improved circumstances for the entire Carraclough clan, man and beast.

Writer-director Charles Sturridge tells this story in a very leisurely way, exulting in the lovely locations, the gorgeous widescreen cinematography of Howard Atherton, the abilities of the well-trained animals, and the contributions of an impressive slew of human performers, starting with tykes Mason and Odgers, who–though they might not efface memories of Roddy McDowall amd Elizabeth Taylor–are spunky and personable, and proceeding past Morton and Lynch to folks like O’Toole, Fox and Dinklage, who seem to be having a rousing good time and in whose company it’s a joy to spend some time, even if their material is sometimes a bit limp. The lesser roles are filled remarkably well, too; some of England’s best character actors and actresses show up here, sometimes for just seconds, and recite their lines with an aplomb that can’t help but bring a smile to your face.

Unfortunately, despite its virtues “Lassie” will probably suffer the same fate as another solid but largely ignored British adaptation of a much-loved book, Caroline Thompson’s 1994 take on Anna Sewell’s “Black Beauty.” It was good, too, but too tame for modern kid audiences, who’ve been trained to demand fare that’s hyperkinetic and coarse. (There’s not a flatulence gag or vomit scene anywhere here.) That’s a pity, but it’s the way the culture has developed; and in today’s crass environment the run of a nice, pleasant, quietly engaging but slow and determinedly old-school piece of family entertainment like this in theatres will probably have to be measured in dog time–-a day for a week.