Seducing Doctor Lewis (2003)

The tiny ("microscopic" as Dr. Lewis puts it) village of Ste. Marie du Mauderne is in trouble. Fishing is dead and all of its inhabitants are on welfare, and they can't get any economic help unless they can get a plastic container factory to build there--but for that they must have a population of at least 200 and a full-time doctor. The village has neither. What they do have is a collection of memorable and wonderful characters who are willing to do anything they have to to get the factory--including coercing a doctor--a plastic surgeon named Christopher Lewis--to give them a month-long trial. The mayor of the town, Germain, is the instigator of the plot to "seduce" Dr. Lewis into find the village irresistible so he will sign on permanently. Immediately they begin to manufacture anything they need to get him to sign a contract: they give him a home (the "modern" house of the bank manager which he finds incredibly ugly,) cook his favorite foods in the restaurant, take him fishing (putting frozen fish on his hook for him to pull up,) even manage his appointments so he's not overwhelmed with work. And since the doctor is a cricket fan, they also form a team--complete with homemade white sweaters--even though none of the Quebecers knows a single thing about the game. There's a memorable moment when the mayor tries to get the men to understand that cricket is a GAME--not an insect. It's one of the funniest exchanges in the film. Germain, his best friend Yvon, the bank manager (whose fear of being replaced by a bank machine is constant)and the rest of the villagers do everything possible to make the seduction work, including tapping the doctor's phone calls to his girlfriend Brigitte, (who is cheating on him in Montreal,) and pretending he's like the son Germain lost as a child (Germain and his wife are childless.) The fake cricket game alone is worth the rental fee for the film. When the factory representatives come to inspect the village and don't believe there are 200 inhabitants they move the entire population from one building to another, while the people change clothes along the run, to fool the reps. They finally realize how dangerous it is to lie about everything you are, even if it's for a good cause, when the doctor tells them how hurt he was by his girlfriend's deceptions. It seems their seduction may be over, but there are still surprises in store.

The film was beautifully made, with fine performances and well-drawn, multi-layered characterizations--it's not slapstick but it's just tongue-in-cheek enough that although you will find yourself laughing out loud at some of the antics, you'll also be smiling inwardly at the very lovableness of the people who are pulling them.

Well recommended. A charming film enjoyable by everyone (anyone who can read the subtitles.) Some adult themes, but nothing objectionable.

Fmovies: The obvious parallel, even before watching the movie, was /Waking Ned Devine (1998)/, which had this quirkiness and this notion of a small community where everyone gets involved. But /La grande illusion/ seems more playful, somewhat more magical, and, obviously, more Quebecker.

The film's Quebecness shows in several ways from the "baveuse" attitude of a Malena-looking Lucie Laurier, to the language used. Obviously, the film is meant to please those who like Quebec actors and comedians. For one thing, at least three of the people involved in the film (Benoît Brière, Bruno Blanchet, and writer/actor Ken Scott (V)) work together on /Le Plateau (2000)/ and Pouliot has been working with Brière on the well-known TV ads for Bell Canada. Still, this film clearly reaches much further than the Quebec audience.

Filmed in Harrington Harbour in the Lower North Coast region of Quebec (150km from the road), /La grande séduction/ appeals (seduces?) by the visual impact of the setting. Yet, that aspect is played fairly low in the register, leaving much to the creative plot and outstanding acting.

While there are a few touching moments, the movie avoided most of the pitfalls of sentimentality. The humour is intense (lots of laughter and lap-slapping in the audience) but subtle, playing on personalities instead of witty puns or physical humour. Even the most obvious jokes pan out with the collaboration of watchers. This movie makes one long for these enchanted places that only exist in good movies and on the minds of movie-goers.

This is one of those films you enjoy watching with a friend. It s funny in a nice way. You get attached to the village and somehow you'll start wishing you could live there. - This is the tale of a run down french Canadian village on a small island off the east coast of Canada is in need of a doctor in order to survive... The villagers try to seduce a city doctor into moving on the island. No sex... no drugs... no violence... (i can almost hear the "awwww"). But they will use whatever means they've got to try to convince him to stay. As they do, you see the people's hope growing and they all seem to be alive again. They put their differences aside and unite in their quest to find a doctor. Do not expect another "Doc Hollywood". This movie has an innocent charm about it... This movie has definitely seduced me!!!

Seducing Doctor Lewis fmovies. If you had the chance to see this movie in theatres, you probably noticed that everybody was laughing throughout the film. In other words, it's funny and funny. Well written script, it's unexpected all the time. Good cast choice as well. What I like is that it's a caricaturization of the hospital situation in regional Quebec. Congratulations guys!

This is the story of a little island village much similar to many others that once relied on fishing for a living. But now almost every inhabitant checkin the post office on the first day of each month. At the promise that a factory will settle in if there is a permanent doctor on the island, they manage to get one and to keep him always with the naive ingeniosity of people from little village. Good and tender moments, laughing galore. Raymond Bouchard is great, and so is the rest of the cast.

What is it about remote coastal communities that makes them so perfect for feel-good funnies such as these? There's something evocative and atavistic about the sea and fishing folk. Maybe it's somewhere in the roots of all of us, and we never fail to delight in seeing those apparently simple folk, apparently locked into a fading past, nevertheless conspire to outsmart the sophisticated city slicker who comes into their midst. I must go down to the sea again, and even on a balmy Perth summer evening at one of our beautiful outdoor cinemas I could almost smell the cod and kelp and feel the keen north Atlantic wind as it tore through Ste Marie la Mauderne.

The plot was indeed clever and ironical. Dr Chris Lewis was NOT ultimately seduced by cricket, beef stroganoff, fishing, "lucky" $5 bills placed in his path, fusion jazz, nor even the lovely Eve, whom we all thought would prove the clincher in a Hollywood "boy gets girl" finale. No, not at all. He was seduced by the honest and genuine needs of a community who felt the need to resort to every degree of dishonesty to try and win his heart with all those things which ultimately proved trivial.

Congratulations, Canada Francophone, this one was a real beauty. Dix points!