Can Peter O'Toole get the last laugh over that Joker Heath Ledger at the Oscars?

Considering that Heath Ledger ("The Dark Knight") will likely compete in that Oscars category often labeled the veterans' achievement award, the one thing that might hurt his odds is a reigning veteran overdue for academy gold, right?

And among those, is there anyone more formidable than Oscar's biggest loser? Since Peter O'Toole has been defeated eight times for best lead actor, he'd probably do best at this point to compete in the same category (supporting) that resulted in victories for other seniors such as Alan Arkin ("Little Miss Sunshine"), James Coburn ("Affliction"), Martin Landau ("Ed Wood"), Jack Palance ("City Slickers") and the example that probably draws the most parallels — Don Ameche ("Cocoon").

Well, Peter O'Toole's latest flick, "Dean Spanley," had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival today and the audience seemed — charmed is a good word to use. Applause at the end was loud and heartfelt, and it was almost all for O'Toole's latest screen turn.

"Dean Spanley" doesn't have a U.S. distributor yet, but, assuming it gets one plus an Oscar campaign, it's logical to think that O'Toole would compete in supporting. O'Toole's role as a grumpy Edwardian geezer angry at life since the death of his son in the Boer War — or maybe even earlier, when O'Toole's dog Wag ran away, it's hard to tell — is large enough to go lead, but he'd never get nominated there. Supporting is O'Toole's only hope here and, admittedly, it's a bit of a long shot.

Not because O'Toole isn't superb. Of course, he is. He's Peter O'Toole, for cryin' out loud, and he's majestic on screen again, and he even has a crying scene, a good one at the end.

The problem with this film is, well, its genre. It's like a nice Disney or Hallmark pic. It's simple and lollipop sweet, but it's not an Oscar-caliber movie and it's unlikely to survive the long knives of those sour critics who save up their bloodlust for flicks like this. Already the first review that hit the Web today is a good example  — at the Canadian website well-named Exclaim because reading its take on "Dean Spanley" makes you yelp, "Ouch!" (especially the crack about Queen Elizabeth — that's a real howler) before it dismisses the whole flick as "entirely forgettable." READ MORE

As things stand now, I don't think the Joker has cause to frown (or resort to his chicanery in defense), but the whole set-up of this Oscar race certainly does make you wonder: Hmmm, how might this derby contest change if, say, the eventual distributor of "Dean Spanley" hired more samurai Oscar consultants and the movie managed to dodge further nasty reviews (granted, a big "if") and if this time O'Toole actually agreed to hang out in L.A. to campaign, then maybe . . . maybe . . . ?

A vicious Oscar blogger might say that we'd have a real killer Oscar contest: the dead guy (Ledger) versus the almost dead guy? Too cruel? The point of O'Toole's character in this film is that he's at death's door as the film opens. In fact, you worry that he might be a goner already when you first see him on screen, not moving in his chair by the fireplace, head back, eyes frozen open as if pointing the way to heaven.

But then he suddenly barks at his son (Jeremy Northam) and O'Toole is revealed to be a crusty codger probably headed in the opposite direction in the afterlife. But his son is nonplussed and determined to fix what's wrong and turn dad around.

Turns out the problem is a curious one. Dad refuses to deal with his grief over his other son's death in the war, and the reason he can't do that is, well, because his old dog Wag once ran away and never came back. Make sense? Don't growl. That's where this film's other whimsical element comes in: reincarnation. O'Toole's surviving son figures out that a local clergyman was, in a previous life, the dog that ran off with Wag. (Stop snickering!) All of this is revealed whenever the dean — yep, as in the title, "Dean Spanley" —  takes a doggy-style sniff and a sip of a rare wine called Tokay, and he suddenly starts recalling his canine adventures in first person. Or in first dog?