The Grand Seduction ** (2013, Taylor Kitsch, Brendan Gleeson, Liane Balaban, Gordon Pinsent) – Movie Review

Twee, old-fashioned but good-natured comedy in which a dying Newfoundland fishing village must convince handsome young doctor Taylor Kitsch to take up residence by any means necessary. Tickle Cove needs a doctor so the town can land a contract to secure a factory that will save the place from financial ruin.

Brendan Gleeson stars as the man in charge of the search for a doctor, esteemed village resident Murray French. Gleeson is fine, holding it all together, but he needs tougher, stronger material to work on to shine. Even this gritty actor can’t put much grit into the film. Kitsch provides the eye candy, as well as a decent performance as Dr Lewis, the man Murray finds and then is targeted to be tricked into staying.

Though the film seems to ramble on interminably at 113 minutes, Michael Dowse and Ken Scott‘s screenplay doesn’t flesh out the characters, who remain stereotypes, or provide much in the way of witty dialogue, damping the fun.

Don McKellar‘s film is incredibly warm-hearted and well meaning, so it’s hard not to like it, but it’s so cosy it hurts. It’s like time travelling back to the Forties and Fifties and the similarly themed classic Whisky Galore (1949) or at least to the Eighties and Local Hero. Actor McKellar is also the director of 1998’s Last Night.

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© Derek Winnert 2014 Movie Review

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