The Grand Seduction (2014)

An extremely charming feel-good movie about a small harbour community. Full of hope, kind characters, subtle comedic moments and little white lies. 9/10

It's the small habour (not village) of Tickle Head, Newfoundland, Canada. Murray French (Brendan Gleeson) remembers the days when his proud father worked hard to fish cod. The pride is gone now and everybody lines up to receive their welfare. To add to the indignity, Murray's wife gets a job in the big city. The town is bidding for a petrochemical plant but they need a full-time doctor. Dr. Lewis (Taylor Kitsch) gets caught with some cocaine at the airport and the town's former mayor blackmails him to work in Tickle Head for a month. The town conspires to seduce Lewis with lies, cricket, fishing and Murray even tries to push Kathleen (Liane Balaban) to flirt. Then it gets more complicated when the oil executive implies that he needs a $100k bribe.This is a sweet little movie. The place looks nice. Brendan Gleeson is especially great. Taylor Kitsch and Liane Balaban are nice. Everything and everyone is nice and charming. There are a few good laughs but only a few. The romance could have been better. Gleeson and gang are able to keep the little charmer on track.

Review: I really enjoyed this comedy about a small village who needs a doctor to build a factory so the residents can get jobs. After a cricketer/doctor gets caught at customs with cocaine, he gets bribed to become the village doctor but the village have to try there hardest to convince the doctor to stay. The storyline was very well written and you can't help but laugh at the extents that the village goes to, to convince the doctor that there place is the best place in the world. There's a great mixture of characters which keep the movie interesting and the chemistry in the whole community was a joy to watch. The storyline does go a bit far in places, but that's what made it amusing from beginning to end. Its a light hearted comedy which has a deep moral to the story and you can't help but feel for the village who really pull together to save there community. Enjoyable!Round-Up: I'm really becoming a fan of Brendan Gleeson who has done some big films in his career, like Gangs Of New York, Troy and Edge Of Tomorrow, but he still sticks to his roots by doing small budget films like Calvary, The Guard and this movie, which he was great in. Taylor Kitsch hasn't had such a great career, especially after starring as the main character in the awful John Carter and Battleship was also not that great, but I did like him in Savages. Hopefully he will do a good job of the new True Detecive series but he does have a hard act to follow from Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey. As for this film, the director done a great job with the storyline and the authenticity was spot on.Budget: $12.7million Worldwide Gross: $4millionI recommend this movie to people who are into their light hearted comedies about a small town who needs a doctor so they can build a factory which will supply them with jobs. 6/10

Just a few comments: I may have missed it, but I swear I didn't hear the word "Newfoundland" (or Canada?) once in the whole film. The constant references to Newfoundland in the reviews etc., couldn't have come from anyone but Canadians: geography-deprived US audiences could have easily mistaken the setting for coastal Maine or New Brunswick, England, Ireland, Scotland or wherever. In a similar vein, keep in mind that the accents of Newfies, Irish, cockneys, Scots and Aussies are all just one big blurry brogue to the average US movie and TV viewer-- just "funny English accents". And therefore, not really geography-specific.Also, I would have thought that Pinsent and company would have corrected Gleeson's US-style pronunciations at times, such as his use of the word "prawject" for "project" (Canadians universally say "proh-ject"). Also, in references to the "town" of "SAINT Johns" it should have been pronounced "S'n' JOHNS" (emphasis on "Johns") not to be mistaken for the "town" of SAINT John in New Brunswick (emphasis on "SAINT").But a fine movie. A little more geographic specificity, and more attention to language issues for our US audiences would have been nice. Good for sales, too.BB