La Grande Seduction- a great Canadian film

[Johann]

Tonight I saw a great French Canadian movie at the Globe- The Seduction of Dr. Lewis.

There's a town called La Marie in Quebec that needs a doctor. But they need one for more than just ailments and injuries: they need one for jobs.

See, 90% of the town relies on government assistance (welfare) to survive. The mayor has found out that in order to get people working in his fishing village he needs a factory. The trouble is, no factory will open up in the tiny village because they have no doctor and they have only 120 residents. (250 are needed)

They can bluff their way around the population numbers, but not having no doctor. So he and his crack team of village cohorts send out hundreds of letters to doctors in Montreal in hopes that one will actually want to move to a remote fishing village.

Hilarity ensues. This is one of the wittiest movies I've ever seen.

No doctor agrees to move to Marie, but in a twist of fate, a doctor is stopped on the highway by a relative of one of the villagers- a traffic cop. This doc happens to have a baggie of cocaine on him.
In lieu of a jail term, you can guess what happens.

So you have the villagers try to make him stay longer than the 1 month "community service" term he was given. Lots, lots more to tell but I won't give any more away.

This film is VERY Canadian and very funny. There's sentimentality, but it doesn't get overdone. Great indie flick, and I highly recommend it.

[Howard Schumann]

I saw this film today and my initial reaction was kind of lukewarm but I haven't really formulated my thoughts yet into a review. It was amusing and charming but seemed formulaic and sitcomish but maybe I would have seen it differently if I lived in Quebec. I'm very sensitive to issues of morality in films and I was bothered by the illegal and unethical use of wiretaps and the fact that no one spoke up about issues of integrity.

Did you have any reaction to that? The film seems to be saying that the end justifies the means but perhaps I'm taking it a bit too seriously.

GO CANUCKS!

[Johann]

Well if you remember, the townsfolk came clean about the wiretapping. Re: integrity- these people were desperate! As some people on welfare are prone to be.

They really wanted Dr. Lewis to stay. They had to do everything they could to get him to hang around (including wiretaps- which provided some great laughs- when they find out he has a foot fetish all the ladies show off their feet the next day!)
You are aware this was a comedy, right Howard?

[Howard Schumann]

Originally posted by Johann
Well if you remember, the townsfolk came clean about the wiretapping. Re: integrity- these people were desperate! As some people on welfare are prone to be.

They really wanted Dr. Lewis to stay. They had to do everything they could to get him to hang around (including wiretaps- which provided some great laughs- when they find out he has a foot fetish all the ladies show off their feet the next day!)
You are aware this was a comedy, right Howard?
Please don't be patronizing. A film must be held to ethical standards whether it is a comedy, drama, or musical. The fact that they came clean about wiretapping one month after the fact does not mitigate the fact that wiretapping is both illegal and unethical. I can just hear the defendant in court telling a judge to please excuse his crime because he was "desperate" and in addition came clean about it one month later. Sorry. Yes great laughs but what is it saying? If you are desperate enough, anything goes invcluding invasion of privacy?

[Johann]

You are taking this movie way too seriously.

[Howard Schumann]

Originally posted by Johann
You are taking this movie way too seriously. Perhaps, but I only start to take films seriously when they offend my sense of what works from an ethical point of view. I think the film could have shown how desperate the villagers were in a different way, or someone could have pointed to the consequences of their action -- legal as well as practical when the Doctor eventually finds out. Unfortunately no one spoke up and the Doctor just shrugged it off when finally discovering it. This is filming that trivializes issues of conscience in the name of audience appeal, a trend that unfortunately seems to be proliferating in commercial cinema today.

[Johann]

Fair enough. I'm surprised you're so PC about this film, Howard. It's Canadian through and through. Who really cares about the ethics of wiretapping in a Quebec farce? These villagers have never set foot outside of La Marie. Cut them some slack.

And many apologies are due to tabuno, who was the first one to post about this film. I should have added to your supportive post.