La grande séduction (2003)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

Jean-François Pouliot

Writer:

Ken Scott (writer)

Release Date:

26 March 2004 (Italy)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

A much-needed boost, in the form of a new factory, is promised to the residents of the tiny fishing village St. Marie-La-Mauderne, provided they can lure a doctor to take up full-time residency on the island. Inspired, the villagers devise a scheme to make Dr. Christopher Lewis a local.

Plot Keywords:

Doctor | Fishing | Island | Cricket | Boat

Awards:

15 wins & 11 nominations

Cast

Raymond Bouchard	...	Germain Lesage
Dominic Michon-Dagenais	...	Germain Lesage enfant
Guy-Daniel Tremblay	...	Rolland Lesage
Nadia Drouin	...	Simone Lesage
Rita Lafontaine	...	Hélène Lesage
Roc LaFortune	...	Charles Campeau
Réal Bossé	...	Denis Lacoste
Guy Vaillancourt	...	Claude Larivée
Lucie Laurier	...	Eve Beauchemin
Pierre Collin	...	Yvon Brunet
Ken Scott	...	Richard Auger
Jean-Pierre Gonthier	...	Réal Fournier
Benoît Brière	...	Henri Giroux
Marc Legault	...	Marcel Sigouin
Caroline Girard	...	Lucie Giroux

Also Known As:

Seducing Doctor Lewis (International: English title)
Seducing Dr. Lewis (International: English title) (poster title)

Runtime:

108 min

Country:

Canada

Language:

French

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Ireland:12A | South Korea:All | Canada:G (Québec) | Germany:o.Al. | Switzerland:7 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:7 (canton of Vaud) | USA:Unrated | Australia:M | Argentina:Atp

Filming Locations:

Fox Island, Miramichi, New Brunswick, Canada

Company:

Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit (CPTC)

Trivia:

When the factory agent returns to the restaurant to retrieve his hat, he inquires where all the townspeople have gone, and is told by the banker (according to the subtitles), "It's 7 o'clock, they have gone home to watch ET." Actually he says that as it is 7 o'clock, they have gone home to watch "Virginie", a French-Canadian serial drama.

Goofs:

Continuity: There are two scenes at the Giroux dinner table where Henri asks if Lucie has an announcement. The scenes are supposedly days apart, yet each member of the family is wearing the same outfit and they are eating the same meal in each scene.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in JCVD (2008)

sweet and familiar

"Seducing Doctor Lewis" (or "La grande seduction") is the story of a remote Canadian community, an old fishing town, hoping to seduce a big-city doctor to move there so that a factory will open and take the town's population of 125 people off of public welfare. Following the precedent of "Doc Hollywood" and "Northern Exposure," the film highlights the attractive simplicity of small town life and makes it almost as irresistible to the audience as it is supposed to be to Doctor Lewis. The film has a couple small, but glaring, conceptual similarities to its predecessors: 1) as in "Doc Hollywood," the doctor is a plastic surgeon--i.e. just the sort of person who needs an adorable small town to straighten out his priorities, and 2) as in "Northern Exposure" the doctor is looking at a limited, 5-year stint in the town, something that seems more plausible than seeing a young doctor dedicating his entire future career to a town of just over 100 people. All in all, "Seducing Doctor Lewis" is the seductive little film it sets out to be, nearly mustering a charm equal to "Waking Ned Divine." And one has to admire the filmmakers for sidestepping the potential clichés that the film's ending could have stooped to. David Boutin, also, plays a very likable doctor, while looking strangely like a Dominique Pinon whose body has been stretched to leading-man proportions.