Love at First Sight

For the past few days, I've been reviewing various movies and TV specials featuring an "SNL"er in the beginning of their careers. So now we're in 1977 with the release of Dan Aykroyd's first starring feature, an independent Canadian movie called Love at First Sight. A partly ironic title since Aykroyd plays a blind man named Roy. One day, a woman named Shirley (Mary Ann McDonald) visits the store Roy works at and tries to buy something. Something develops from there. I'll just now say that I found the whole movie sweet and whatever humor that develops comes gradually as the movie goes on. I was really nicely surprised by both the film and Aykroyd's performance in a role quite unlike what he'd become more famous for. So on that note, I highly recommend Love at First Sight.

When I was living in Toronto in the late 70's I went to school across the street from the local Canadian National Institute for the Blind and there was a young fellow working the desk there that I interacted with over a couple of years. When I first saw Aykroyd's performance in Love at First Sight I was shocked. It was a uncanny impression of the fellow I knew from CNIB. I've always wondered whether this is where he got his inspiration. It is a very nuanced performance. What a great talent Dan Aykroyd is.

And the film has a lot of very funny moments. Watch out for the first time he takes her home. Genius.

"Love at First Sight" is Dan Aykroyd's first film, and although low budget, it's funny, funny, funny.

Don't let the grimey run-down appearance of the film and its location scare you off. Set in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in the early 1970's, LAFS is the story of Roy, a 20-something blind man who falls unexpectedly in love with Shirley, an unemployed young woman in search of a love and a future.

Shirley's father however, has different plans for his daughter. Believing that Roy is an unfit match for Shirley, he forbids the two from seeing one another ever again. With some surprise financial assistance from Shirley's grandmother, Shirley and Roy soon elope together to Niagara Falls, where they open a successful restaurant and live happily ever after.

LAFS is quirkey, well written and the characters are hilarious. Shirley's bigoted, beer guzzling dumb Canuck of a father is alone worth the price of admission.

Also, keep your eye out for all sorts of funny little details going on in the background, and just try to note all of the somewhat puzzling KFC references in the film (including a cameo by Col. Sanders himself).

LAFS is a sweetheart of a film, and it also contains one of my favourite (and strangest) movie lines ever: "Go ahead Shirley, touch the janitor's genitals."

This film is a real Canadian gem. It is made up of so many small and subtle bits, and has a warm, kind feel. Two people making it their way. Fun and quirky. Chinese take-out for breakfast in Niagara Falls in the winter. What more could you ask for?

Budget clearly means little when all the other elements are first rate. So many of the gags are subtle - not so they're hard to spot, but there's no special effort made to draw your attention to them.

The KFC goof was one of my all time favourite "little" moments in a movie.....not least because it takes about 1\2 the movie to get from the setup to the punchline.

I'm not sure why I need to write more lines of text, but apparently I do. I really don't have a lot more to say about this little gem of a movie, but I suppose I can keep typing, just to fill up space. Think of all the ones and zeros that are giving their lives so pointlessly.