Die große Verführung

When was the last time that you went to see a comedy and actually laughed throughout the movie?

In this small traditional Quebec fishing port, dying in modern times, the townspeople must band together to "seduce" a doctor into signing a five-year contract. Their ability to do so will enable them to attract a factory to the town, providing jobs for everyone. The doctor they set their sights on is from The Big City, and of course all the townsfolk must collaborate to make their sad little town seem like paradise. The giant scheme leads to laugh after laugh. For fans of the show "Le Plateau" you will see all of your favorite characters.

Similar in theme (small town pulling the wool over outsiders eyes) as in the Irish flick "Waking Ned Devine".

What a pleasure to see a film like this from Canada! With our penchant for serious, naval gazing, "deep", issue-laden movies, it is so refreshing to find a solid story with solid characters that is entertaining, creative and unexpected. Along with Les Invasions Barbares, this is a banner year for Canada!

Hopefully La Grand Seduction will be our "Waking Ned Devine" or "Full Monty"...a breakout film that will be received and recognized around the world. It is a long time since I've had tears in my eyes from laughing in a film. It is true that the sudden turn of events at the very end of the film is a little forced, but the rest of the film is so great that it is easily forgiven.

I definitely recommend catching this one in theatres soon!

"Seducing Doctor Lewis" (or "La grande seduction") is the story of a remote Canadian community, an old fishing town, hoping to seduce a big-city doctor to move there so that a factory will open and take the town's population of 125 people off of public welfare. Following the precedent of "Doc Hollywood" and "Northern Exposure," the film highlights the attractive simplicity of small town life and makes it almost as irresistible to the audience as it is supposed to be to Doctor Lewis. The film has a couple small, but glaring, conceptual similarities to its predecessors: 1) as in "Doc Hollywood," the doctor is a plastic surgeon--i.e. just the sort of person who needs an adorable small town to straighten out his priorities, and 2) as in "Northern Exposure" the doctor is looking at a limited, 5-year stint in the town, something that seems more plausible than seeing a young doctor dedicating his entire future career to a town of just over 100 people. All in all, "Seducing Doctor Lewis" is the seductive little film it sets out to be, nearly mustering a charm equal to "Waking Ned Divine." And one has to admire the filmmakers for sidestepping the potential clichés that the film's ending could have stooped to. David Boutin, also, plays a very likable doctor, while looking strangely like a Dominique Pinon whose body has been stretched to leading-man proportions.

This is one of those films which reminds viewers that the medium can be smart and very, very funny at the same time. Even better, La Grande Seduction manages to make an audience laugh throughout its length without constantly resorting to the tired bathroom, sex or slapstick humour employed in so many other films.

Like the most predictable humour found in modern sitcoms, the laughs are derived from deception in one form or another. Still, the over-the-top means employed and the end itself - convincing a city doctor to reside in a physician-free outport - allows any viewer to simply enjoy what unfolds, and relish both the obvious and the obtuse.

I had the pleasure of watching the movie with my in-laws, and can attest that the guffaws span all ages and can break through any language barrier. Hands down, it was the funniest movie any of us had seen in a number of years. Highly recommended.

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The irony of the situation was that we purchased the DVD just for the purpose of seeing the scenery. La Grande Seduction was shot in Harrington Harbor, an island outport on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, which my wife and I had visited earlier this summer. The lovely village connected only by boardwalks and dominated by pedestrians and ATVs instead of cars is surrounded by the wonderful geography typical of the St. Lawrence Basse-Cote-Nord (Lower North Shore). Unsurprisingly, the real but unique location, still a working fishing village, does not have problems attracting doctors or anyone else. The painful part is not being able to stay longer.

The tiny ("microscopic" as Dr. Lewis puts it) village of Ste. Marie du Mauderne is in trouble. Fishing is dead and all of its inhabitants are on welfare, and they can't get any economic help unless they can get a plastic container factory to build there--but for that they must have a population of at least 200 and a full-time doctor. The village has neither. What they do have is a collection of memorable and wonderful characters who are willing to do anything they have to to get the factory--including coercing a doctor--a plastic surgeon named Christopher Lewis--to give them a month-long trial. The mayor of the town, Germain, is the instigator of the plot to "seduce" Dr. Lewis into find the village irresistible so he will sign on permanently. Immediately they begin to manufacture anything they need to get him to sign a contract: they give him a home (the "modern" house of the bank manager which he finds incredibly ugly,) cook his favorite foods in the restaurant, take him fishing (putting frozen fish on his hook for him to pull up,) even manage his appointments so he's not overwhelmed with work. And since the doctor is a cricket fan, they also form a team--complete with homemade white sweaters--even though none of the Quebecers knows a single thing about the game. There's a memorable moment when the mayor tries to get the men to understand that cricket is a GAME--not an insect. It's one of the funniest exchanges in the film. Germain, his best friend Yvon, the bank manager (whose fear of being replaced by a bank machine is constant)and the rest of the villagers do everything possible to make the seduction work, including tapping the doctor's phone calls to his girlfriend Brigitte, (who is cheating on him in Montreal,) and pretending he's like the son Germain lost as a child (Germain and his wife are childless.) The fake cricket game alone is worth the rental fee for the film. When the factory representatives come to inspect the village and don't believe there are 200 inhabitants they move the entire population from one building to another, while the people change clothes along the run, to fool the reps. They finally realize how dangerous it is to lie about everything you are, even if it's for a good cause, when the doctor tells them how hurt he was by his girlfriend's deceptions. It seems their seduction may be over, but there are still surprises in store.

The film was beautifully made, with fine performances and well-drawn, multi-layered characterizations--it's not slapstick but it's just tongue-in-cheek enough that although you will find yourself laughing out loud at some of the antics, you'll also be smiling inwardly at the very lovableness of the people who are pulling them.

Well recommended. A charming film enjoyable by everyone (anyone who can read the subtitles.) Some adult themes, but nothing objectionable.