The Grand Seduction is a 2013 Canadian comedy film directed by Don McKellar and written by Ken Scott and Michael Dowse. The film stars Taylor Kitsch, Brendan Gleeson, Liane Balaban and Gordon Pinsent. It is based on a 2003 French-Canadian film, La Grande Séduction. The film was nominated in four categories for the Canadian Screen Awards, with Pinsent winning the award for Actor in a Supporting Role at the March 2014 ceremony.
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Movie Details:
Directed by: Don McKellar
Produced by: Barbara Doran, Roger Frappier
Written by: Ken Scott, Michael Dowse
Starring: Taylor Kitsch, Brendan Gleeson, Liane Balaban, Gordon Pinsent, Mark Critch, Mary Walsh, Cathy Jones, Matt Watts
Music by: Francois-Pierre Lue, Maxime Barzel, Paul-Étienne Côté
Cinematography: Douglas Koch
Edited by: Dominique Fortin
Distributed by: Entertainment One
Release date(s): 8 September 2013 (TIFF), 30 May 2014 (Canada)
Running time: 115 minutes
Country: Canada
Language: English
Budget: $12.7 million
Box office: $3,393,520
Source: Wikipedia n IMDB
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Plot:
The story begins with Murray French as a young boy, narrating about his father, one of the fishermen in the small "harbour" community of Tickle Head, Newfoundland. Murray feels that the community has a shared sense of purpose and an ethic of hard work, and notes his parent's domestic bliss (Murray's mother is played by Evany Rosen). The story then cuts to the present day, when the men of Tickle Head (including Murray) line up at the town's post office to receive welfare cheques from Kathleen (the post office clerk) and cash them with bank branch manager Henry Tilley. Murray receives two cheques, one under a "power of attorney" for a man who is a short time later revealed to be deceased (unbeknownst to the welfare office). To avoid an argument about his wife (played by Cathy Jones)leaving for a job in St. John's, Murray attends a town meeting, where only himself, the mayor, his friend Simon, and Henry are present. The mayor tells Murray that a petrochemical factory was being negotiated for the town, but that the company required a doctor to be resident there (and the community has been trying for 8 years unsuccessfully to woo one). Murray resolves that the factory (and thus the doctor) are a way out of his troubles. His wife does move to St. John's, for which he is gently mocked by Simon, who later states he has never "been to town [St. John's]." Murray observes the mayor surreptitiously leaving town with his family for a job in St. John's as well, initially claiming it is a "vacation." In St. John's, Dr. Paul Lewis, a plastic surgeon, is flying back to an undisclosed city (implied to be a major Canadian city) after being part of a winning team in a cricket competition, when he is found by a flight security agent with cocaine. The agent is the former mayor of Tickle Head, who makes Lewis a deal to live in the town for a month. Murray arranges for the "seduction" of Dr. Lewis to a long-term contract, lying to the townspeople that this will definitely result in a factory (explicitly denied by all participants of the first town meeting). He has the townspeople learn to appear to play cricket (the doctor's favourite sport), encourages Kathleen to flirt with the doctor (who is engaged to a woman named Helen, who does not accompany him to Tickle Head), and taps the doctor's phone (monitored by Simon's wife, played by Mary Walsh) to learn more ways to please him (such as getting the local restaurant to serve Lamb Dhansak when the doctor mentions he misses it). Henry spearheads a plan so that Lewis will find money (a $5) at a certain spot in town: the gag is that the money constantly reappears in the same place, although the doctor never suspects. The executive of the petrochemical company with the plant proposal (Peter Keleghan) tells Murray (posing as the mayor: it is unclear if he has been elected or appointed to that role, or is simply lying) that the rival town of St. Anne has made a more attractive offer, including an "assurance" (referred to by the characters in Tickle Head as a bribe, although never phrased that way by the executive). The executive demands an "assurance" of $100,000 before the plant will be awarded to Tickle Head, as well as expressing concern about a lower-than-minimum population in Tickle Head for the factory (Murray tricks the executive, when he visits, by claiming there are undocumented people in Tickle Head, and "proving" it by showing him the same group of people in two different locations). Henry's bank denies the request for a loan, and when Henry presses the issue, tells him that he could be replaced with an ATM, leading Henry to approve the loan against bank instructions, for which he will be fired. The lies (as an example, Lewis lost his father at age 2, while Murray claims to have lost a son, and Murray claims that a Mr. Smith died in the middle of town of a heart attack because there was no doctor) and favourable attention do incline Lewis to stay, as does the realization that his fiancee Helen has been cheating on him with his best friend for 3 years. However, just as he accepts the position in front of the whole town, a guilty Murray lies and tells him there is another doctor who has accepted the position. Lewis is then filled in by Kathleen about the deceptions, and angrily confronts Murray as the executive is signing the paperwork for the factory (Murray claims he has already sent the company the doctor's certificate, which he has not). After an impassioned speech by Murray, the doctor agrees to stay, the company agrees to build the factory, and a future relationship between Lewis and Kathleen is hinted at. The factory opens, bringing dignity back to the town, enabling Murray to be reunited with his wife (who appears to be his supervisor), and with a job for Henry, who has been replaced with an ATM. The film then ends with a similar satisfied ending to Murray's opening flashback.
