User reviews

"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.

This is a sweet funny film and not to be missed.

Small town Quebec is captured beautifully, full of characters that are depressed over the death of the fishing industry, reluctant to leave the town for work in the city and willing to do anything to get an industry to open a plant and provide employment.

The shame of lining up and getting their welfare cheques every month is palpable.

Part of the requirements of opening a manufacturing plant in the village is that it have a doctor and a population of over 200, neither of which this village has. The efforts to secure the doctor and convince the manufacturers of a non-existent larger population is the crux of the humour. That and the cricket scenes. A wonderful effort, beautifully filmed.

8 out of 10.

It's good to see a movie that capitalizes on three basic rules: a good story, a good storyteller and good characters. When you get all three in the same movie, you don't need a lot of FX to achieve a good movie. This one has them all and you should simply judge for yourself.

This is one of those films which reminds viewers that the medium can be smart and very, very funny at the same time. Even better, La Grande Seduction manages to make an audience laugh throughout its length without constantly resorting to the tired bathroom, sex or slapstick humour employed in so many other films.

Like the most predictable humour found in modern sitcoms, the laughs are derived from deception in one form or another. Still, the over-the-top means employed and the end itself - convincing a city doctor to reside in a physician-free outport - allows any viewer to simply enjoy what unfolds, and relish both the obvious and the obtuse.

I had the pleasure of watching the movie with my in-laws, and can attest that the guffaws span all ages and can break through any language barrier. Hands down, it was the funniest movie any of us had seen in a number of years. Highly recommended.

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The irony of the situation was that we purchased the DVD just for the purpose of seeing the scenery. La Grande Seduction was shot in Harrington Harbor, an island outport on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, which my wife and I had visited earlier this summer. The lovely village connected only by boardwalks and dominated by pedestrians and ATVs instead of cars is surrounded by the wonderful geography typical of the St. Lawrence Basse-Cote-Nord (Lower North Shore). Unsurprisingly, the real but unique location, still a working fishing village, does not have problems attracting doctors or anyone else. The painful part is not being able to stay longer.

When was the last time that you went to see a comedy and actually laughed throughout the movie?

In this small traditional Quebec fishing port, dying in modern times, the townspeople must band together to "seduce" a doctor into signing a five-year contract. Their ability to do so will enable them to attract a factory to the town, providing jobs for everyone. The doctor they set their sights on is from The Big City, and of course all the townsfolk must collaborate to make their sad little town seem like paradise. The giant scheme leads to laugh after laugh. For fans of the show "Le Plateau" you will see all of your favorite characters.

Similar in theme (small town pulling the wool over outsiders eyes) as in the Irish flick "Waking Ned Devine".

What a pleasure to see a film like this from Canada! With our penchant for serious, naval gazing, "deep", issue-laden movies, it is so refreshing to find a solid story with solid characters that is entertaining, creative and unexpected. Along with Les Invasions Barbares, this is a banner year for Canada!

Hopefully La Grand Seduction will be our "Waking Ned Devine" or "Full Monty"...a breakout film that will be received and recognized around the world. It is a long time since I've had tears in my eyes from laughing in a film. It is true that the sudden turn of events at the very end of the film is a little forced, but the rest of the film is so great that it is easily forgiven.

I definitely recommend catching this one in theatres soon!

topline, this is a movie that reminds you that good storytelling and good screen writing can still exist outside the all too cynical Hollywood system.

other comments on this movie describe plot, and failings, more than I have time to write, but if you want to see something that will refresh your view of the resilience of the human spirit and make you smile, you should watch this movie.

nb - you don't have to live in a small town to appreciate the context, but it certainly helps. the movie captures the sense of community that is unique to small towns where everyone knows everyone else's business. I was impressed by how the writer links an ensemble of characters through a deft delineation of complex, rich relationships established in quick strokes of understood history.

in writing terms, the lack of exposition is great, and refreshing for its avoidance of painting characters in black and white only. and for anyone who has left their small-town life for the bright lights of the big city, it is a reminder of some of the best parts of what we left behind.

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!

Nominated for 11 Genie awards including best picture, best director, and best original screenplay, Seducing Doctor Lewis, a film by first-time director Jean-Francois Pouliot, is the biggest Québec success story of 2003, achieving higher box-office receipts than Lord of the Rings, Matrix Reloaded, and Barbarian Invasions. As the film opens, St. Marie-le-Mauderne, a fictional village of 150 people in rural Québec has fallen on hard times. The inhabitants, once proud fisherman, have been reduced to living off welfare, lining up one by one at the post office to collect their monthly checks. When a multinational plastics company using a federal tax incentive agrees to open a factory in St. Marie, the tiny hamlet is compelled to seek a full time resident doctor to serve for five years to fulfill the company's insurance obligations.

After repeated attempts, a doctor is found when a policeman (a former Mayor), finds an illegal substance in a car he's pulled over and sentences the driver Christopher Lewis (David Boutin), a Montreal plastic surgeon, to do rural service in St. Marie for one year. Local villager Germain Lesage (Raymond Bouchard) undertakes to persuade Dr. Lewis to live in the village for five years by cooking up one elaborate ruse after another, which he falls for hook, line, and sinker. The villagers pretend to be enthusiastic about cricket (of which they actually know next to nothing) and admirers of fusion jazz, serve him his favorite dish at the local restaurant, and leave $5 bills in a local lawn ornament each day to convince him of the town's magic.

Unfortunately, they go to lengths of dubious morality to win him over, illegally and unethically tapping his phone to listen to his conversations to find out how they can please him but all they learn is that he likes women's feet and beef stroganoff. They even force the bank manager to approve a loan of $50,000 to bribe the company manager. While Seducing Doctor Lewis has its charms and will put a smile on your face, it pushes all the formulaic buttons and lacks the bold imagination of the superior English and Irish comedies on which it is modeled.

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.

Yes, the film sort of feels like "Ned Devine" (colorful characters / beat the system at its own game / gorgeous scenery) but it is much lighter than that. In fact, "Ned Devine" is a black comedy by comparison. Probably a closer comparison would be "The Gods Must be Crazy" meets "Local Hero" and spawns a love child.

This movie is downright sweet. That is not a bad thing and I can see why its Canadian supporters are trumpeting its virtue. However, as a former resident of Minnesota, I recognize small-town boosterism when I see it. La Grande Seduction is worth the price of admission and I urge anyone who is faced with the question "What movie do I take both my tweener and my parents to that won't make me cringe in my seat?" to go to this movie. However, this is not a movie with much depth below the caper aspects.

Check that. There is a line towards the end of the film that highlights the pathos of the circumstances welfare visits on its recipients. For this viewer, a bit more of this insight would have been appreciated.

By the way, I saw this at a screening that had about 10 of us in a 600 seat theater. Maybe it was because it was a Monday night. Maybe it was because the English title is a bit lame. Whatever; Whoever is hoping to distribute the film in the states had better get its marketing muscle in gear. This sweet a movie deserves an audience.

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.

What does it take to make a good movie? Good actors. Good cinematography. And superb writing. (Among other things, of course). This movie has it all.

At first, I was a bit apprehensive. The teaser looked good. But I had seen the questionable "Doc Hollywood", and feared the worst. We do have the plot of Doc Hollywood -- city plastic surgeon seduced by small town folks who need a GP. The difference is that "La grande séduction" has a well-written script. The result is a charming film that steers away from all of the clichés that one would fear. A film with a superb, continuous rhythm. And actors who are serving the story magnificently, instead of trying to show off. That's what makes good actors.

I'll enjoy seeing it again.

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!!!

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!

To all moviegoers of the United States and English Canada,do not miss this great movie.It succeeds in being extremely funny while describing the dramatic reality of small rural communities.It is the story of proud people who do not want their village to disappear.It could happen to any small community in North America.

The people of a small town lost somewhere in Canada need to hire a Doctor in order to get a contract for the building of a factory. In the town there are only old fishermen that do not fish anymore, so it's so important for them to get that contract.

"La Grande..." it's a such a pleasant movie, it's tender and full of good vibrations. A comedy about eternal values that's been filmed with such good taste.

Those who liked the TV series "Northern Expossure" will sure enjoy this one.

*My rate: 7/10

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.

I enjoyed this simple but very charming movie that shows with humor the drama of people that live isolated and without a chance of getting a decent job.

The movie has very good moments of original humorous dialogues, like the one when the mayor of the tron gets in somebody else's bed, that perhaps may not appeal to people that doesn't know much about life in isolated places of Québec and do not want to make the effort to imagine what it is like.

The acting is very good and the characters very real. It is not easy to be able to recommend a Canadian movie but this one deserves to be watched.

What a great movie that was ! The main actors (Raymond Bouchard, Benoit Brière, Pierre Collin )are very good. Picture this : A very small town up north the province of Quebec need a doctor to attract .......a factory plant !! And they're ready to do anything ( And i mean ANYTHING) to get one....even trying to play .....cricket!!!!

Congrat, to the ones who did that movie. Well done, and original.

"Seducing Doctor Lewis" tells of a French-Canadian fishing village which is on the dole and on the list of locations for a new factory. The latter would get the fishermen of the played out waters new jobs and off welfare, so the townspeople conspire to seduce a doctor to coming to their village with the hope he'll stay on as their resident physician. The result is a charming little comedy full of good natured and earnest characters and their inept attempts at deception and fraud which lead to the inevitable happily ever after fairy tale conclusion. Enjoyable, light hearted. mildly amusing family film fare, "Seducing Doctor Lewis" should appeal to anyone into Disneyesque films who can contend with subtitles. (B-)

This movie is very funny and very touching. You feel for the down on their luck inhabitants fighting for a reason to get up in the morning. The doctor, who is incredibly naive, is charming. The villagers are not to stereotyped and the moral is not underlined for the viewers. Give this movie a chance and go see it.

This film tries to be everything but fails at every turn. Is it meant to be whimsical? Is it a social comment on the dangers of alcohol and drugs? It's certainly insulting to the Canadian people it caricatures. I find it difficult to believe that anyone involved with the film thought it worth releasing, it's bereft of any originality or style. I went with four friends of varying ages and we were all agreed on how bad it was, so it is a film which cuts across the generation divide - all of us disliked it thoroughly..It is a very disappointing film with all its sources, from Whisky Galore to Amelie showing. Do yourself a favour and watch the originals again instead of this shabby copycat of a film.