The Grand Seduction (2014)
Directed by Don McKellar
A small fishing village must procure a local doctor to secure a lucrative business contract. When unlikely candidate and big city doctor Paul Lewis lands in their lap for a trial residence, the townsfolk rally together to charm him into staying. As the doctor’s time in the village winds to a close, acting mayor Murray French has no choice but to pull out all the stops and begin The Grand Seduction.
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What critics compared The Grand Seduction to
If only someone would have commented,“You can’t eat scenery!” as the townspeople, in a similar situation, did in Bill Forsyth’s charming and deeper Local Hero , also about a poor, scenic town, about to be destroyed, physically, by industry that will bring economic growth.
Naturally, this Frankenstein’s monster started with a dead body: 2003’s Seducing Doctor Lewis , a French-Canadian comedy in the Local Hero mold about an idyllic fishing village that pulls out all the stops to lure a doctor to town, and thus make itself eligible as a site for a new factory.
Its sentimental plot – a fishing community hatch a plan to entice an oil company to set up shop in their village that hinges on the residents convincing a city slicker plastic surgeon to take on the position of town doctor – is essentially a crude cut-and-shut of Local Hero and Doc Hollywood .
Forsyth, director of wry and subtle films like "Gregory's Girl" and "Local Hero," hasn't made a film since 1999.
All manner of shenanigans follow, and there’s more than a little of the Irish indie farce, Waking Ned Devine , in the movie’s DNA, although William Forsyth’s Local Hero and Michael J. Fox’s Doc Hollywood also factor into the equation.
Dr. Paul Lewis ( Friday Night Lights ’s Taylor Kitsch) is a cricket freak, so, as he arrives at Tickle Love, the wizened citizenry are having a cricket match on a hill.
And Taylor Kitsch's role is his best since his days on TV's Friday Night Lights.