“The Grand Seduction” opens with a sentimental flashback to the childhood of protagonist Murray French. Shot in the kind of rose-tinted cinematography seen on the Hallmark channel, the flashback shows the remote Canadian harbor of Tickle Head in the past, when men woke up before dawn to go fishing, risking life and limb to support their families, coming home exhausted but happy at the end of the day. In one of the film’s stranger flourishes, the town’s health is signified by a collective post-coital moan emanating from every house in town after the men have come home.
Back in the present, Murray French (now played by the stalwart Brendon Gleeson) gathers with the town’s men for their new ritual – collecting welfare checks. The harbor is fished out and there are no other jobs to be had in the small, 120-person town, leading people like Murray’s wife and even the mayor to leave to find work in the big city (in this case, St. John). Murray becomes acting mayor and inherits the town’s Hail Mary plan for revitalization; enticing an oil company to build a byproduct refinery in town. There are several catches, the largest of which is that the town needs a doctor. In a byzantine plot twist, young Dr. Lewis (Taylor Kitsch) is coerced to stay in the town for a month to avoid prosecution on cocaine charges. Murray convinces the town that the deal for the refinery is all but done if they can convince the doctor to stay permanently. Reinvigorated by the prospect of bringing jobs and saving the town, Murray and the town try to convince the doctor that they share all of his interests, from playing cricket and eating Indian food, to listening to fusion jazz and even going so far as to offer him cocaine. As his engagement and life back home fall apart offscreen, Paul is charmed by the “authenticity” of Tickle Head, a town that has done nothing but lie to him.
“The Grand Seduction” is an English-language remake of the 2003 French-Canadian “Seducing Dr. Lewis,” but if you, like me, haven’t seen that film, you’ll be forgiven for thinking it’s a remake of “Local Hero.” The only real differences are that the outsider is being wooed on purpose, the comedy is much broader, and in this film, nobody seems remotely troubled by what a “petrochemical byproduct re-purposing plant” would mean for the town long-term. The town resorts to obscene corporate kowtowing (full tax immunity and a $100,000 bribe to the CEO) to try to lure the morally and environmentally questionable company to their pristine harbor. The film is thoroughly conservative politically, from its nostalgia for a men-were-men past to its endorsement of the job creators uber alles narrative, but this is mainly disguised in small-town bonhomie. I breathed a sigh of relief when one character questioned the wisdom of bringing in an oil company, but that question was immediately brushed under the rug, never to be heard again.
The film avoids any narrative or moral complexity, opting instead for scene after scene of broad comedy. To be fair, many of these scenes work, especially if you have a taste for the sort of silly, large-scale deception that only happens in the movies (such as the townspeople running out of a bar, changing clothes, and going to the church so the visiting executive will be convinced there’s twice as many people.) Gleeson and Kitsch deliver winning performances, balancing the comedy with introspection, and the Newfoundland scenery is simply stunning. “The Grand Seduction” is a warm-hearted, small town comedy that might have benefited from more realism and nuance, but which many audiences will enjoy.
