Seducing Dr. Lewis
- Film Worth:$8.00
- FILMINK rates movies out of $20 - the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
It's quite a feat, anywhere in the world, to topple The Lord Of The Rings...
It's quite a feat, anywhere in the world, to topple The Lord Of The Rings in head to head ticket sales, but that is what this bonne bouche of bonhomie did in French Canada. It now arrives in Australia, and it wouldn't be too harsh to use the word "parochialism" to explain its Canadian box office boom.
Seducing Dr. Lewis is a cutesy class-comedy book-ended by the sex act, but there's nothing blue to be found in its 109 minute running time, prurient-sounding title aside. The story's central seduction actually relates to the inhabitants of a beleaguered fishing village, Ste. Marie-La Mauderne, who seduce a Montreal doctor to their shores. That's because a plastics company is considering dumping their new factory in the village, but only if there's a physician in residence. Germain (Raymond Bouchard) is the island's fisherman-turned-mayor who leads the crusade to envelop Dr. Christopher Lewis (forced into a one month residence to overcome a cocaine possession charge) in his favourite past-times. While Dr. Lewis never asks where to find local nose candy, he does divulge his preference for beef stroganoff, jazz fusion and an apparently mild foot fetish.
Debut director Jean-Francois Pouliot has created a sweet, summery farce that simply stretches credulity one time too many. The ruses that advance the plot would not be swallowed by an intelligent doctor (coke fiend or otherwise). Ken Scott's script dabs and pricks at urbane snobbery deftly though, and bears more than a slight similarity to the cult TV show Northern Exposure in the process. This village is in such a precarious state that a single ATM could spell the ruin of its bank manager. The economic message is like a razor wrapped in cotton candy. The screenplay wisely doesn't put too fine a point on these darker eddies though, and while a laugh track and a prime time TV slot may have been more appropriate, Seducing Dr. Lewis plays out winningly enough in the cinema.
