The Grand Seduction (2013)

Star – Brendan Gleason

Genre – Comedy

Run Time – 1 hr 53 minutes

Certificate – PG13

Country – CANADA

Awards – 2 Wins & 10 Nominations

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So The Grand Seduction, a gentle comedy from Canadian Actor/Director Don Keller, he of the films Blindness and Scott Pilgrim v the World, this one set in the beautiful wilds of Newfoundland.

It’s based on the French film ‘Seducing Dr Lewis’ and more than whiff of  Local Hero where small fishing village takes on the big corporations to save their idyll and way of life although a quirky Canadian inversion here to the Scottish film.

===Cast===

• Brendan Gleeson        …         Murray French
• Taylor Kitsch  …         Dr. Paul Lewis
• Sean Panting   …         Ernest French
• Crystal Dawn Parsons …         Alice French
• Cathy Jones     …         Barbara French
• Liane Balaban …         Kathleen
• Percy Hynes White     … Young Murray
• Mark Critch     …         Henry Tilley
• Gordon Pinsent           …         Simon
• Lawrence Barr            …         Mayor Tom Fitzpatrick
• Megan Jones   …         Sheryl Fitzpatrick
• Kelsi Prince     …         Lizzie Fitzpatrick

===Plot===

Murray French lives in the fishing village of Tickle Head on the wild cost of Canada. But industry has died there and most people on unemployment welfare and idling their empty lives away. Murray has a strong sense of community and feels the village should share that sense of purpose and an ethic of hard work and intends to bring back work to Tickle Head. Adding to the indignity, Murray’s dutiful wife Barbara (Kathy French) is separating from him for a job in the nearest city of St. John’s to bring in some money.

At a town meeting of all 125 inhabitants, the mayor (Lawrence Barry) tells the people that a petrochemical factory was being negotiated for the town, but that the catch being the company requires a doctor to be resident in Tickle Head, and Mayor Lawrence has been trying to get one for a while. Murray decides to take on the quest for a doctor to not only win his wife back but to reinvigorate the town in the process. But the mayor is not confident and trying to sneak off and also look for work in St John’s.

In St. John’s, Dr. Paul Lewis (Taylor Kitsch), a young plastic surgeon, is flying home when a security man finds some coke in his luggage. Fortunately the agent is the former mayor of Tickle Head, who cuts a deal with Lewis. I didn’t see the cocaine but you must be a doc in Tickle Head for one month to help the villagers out. He has no choice.

Murrays plan is to get the townsfolk to seduce Dr. Lewis into a long-term contract and so securing the factory deal, lying to the townspeople and the doc in that process that this will guarantee the choice of Tickle Head over other locations ( and a big fat bribe the company CEO has hinted at). As part of the ruse, he convinces the townspeople to pretend to play cricket, the doctor’s favorite sport, and also taps the doctor’s phone to learn more ways to entice him to stay as well as googling his past. The doc is handsome and poplar and he takes a shine to the pretty local post office clerk (Liane Balaban), Murray saying to Kathleen a little flirting can do no harm…

===Results===

Its gentle romantic fun and one for the family but very much three-out-of-five for this type of movie. It’s in that ‘diddly-dee’, play the fiddle in the bar style of Irish film Brendan Gleason lives in (and he actually plays the fiddle in this) and no real belly laughs. The opportunity was there for them.

Friday Night Lights and John Carter star Taylor Kitsch is perfectly fine in the lead although it does quickly steer away from being the run of the mill romantic comedy, if that’s what you are after girls. The gorgeous Liane Balaban is somewhat under-used here.

There are no twists and very much a Brendan Gleason film and it just need that bigger comedy punch. I don’t know how cultchey Canadians’ behave but I guess there is a lot more drinking, Prozac and nookie. Still worth a go if it pops up on TV but not want to rent or prioritize on your movie package.

===RATINGS===

Imdb.com – 7/10.0 (13,123votes)

Rottentomatos.com – 60% critic’s approval

Metacritic.com – 57% critic’s approval

===Trailer==