The Grand Seduction – Review

A scenic harbor named Tickle Head, Newfoundland holds just about 120 souls these days. The past held days of men heading out to fish in the dark hours, strong and rugged workers looking to put food on the tables and keep the people happy. For fourteen-hour days these men would risk their well beings to earn food and money and make sure the family was fed. It was a worthy life and there was true happiness.

But today… there is no work. Fishing is no longer permitted, and the harbor has nigh shuttered, with its small group of people still remaining and just trying to get by. It is a slow life, focused mostly on the daily mail, and hopes to hear good news, or receive a meager welfare check. From the post office to the bank does everyone in the small town go, one after the other, forming a nice line.

Murray French (Gleeson) is doing all he can considering the options. He has a nice generational home and a love for the island. But his wife has a job available in nearby St. John’s, which is a larger settlement and capital of Newfoundland. Murray is not happy about this.

The town mayor (and banker) Henry Tilley (Critch) is trying to come up with a way to land a resident doctor, as there is a possible petrochemical company that wants to build a local factory. The town wants it, and needs the jobs desperately, however the issue is they have been trying to attract a doctor for 8 years.

As his friends start taking jobs in town, Murray all of a sudden gets a bit fired up and channels his inner drive. Meanwhile… over in that capital city St. John’s, Dr. Paul Lewis (Kitsch) is heading home to his fiancé, but runs into a slight snag during baggage check, namely cocaine.

As a quick deal is made, the doctor is to live in Tickle Head for one month, giving services to the small town. Murray then has a ticking-clock to convince both the town and the doctor to come together and make an offer on the factory. The problem? The town is completely fabricating most everything about their existence in order to “seduce” this doctor into staying permanently.

The Grand Seduction is a mostly feel-good comedy about putting on a continuing “presentation” to lure a bigger city fish to a smaller harbor pond. As personalities and expectations collide, as well as lies, or at the very least fabrications, there will be choppy waters ahead. Will the doctor fall in love with the setting, and the hot post-office girl? What about his fiancé? Will the town be able to present a picture of a wonderful setting for the doctor AND also land a new factory? The pressure is on.

I have not seen the original French film this was a remake of, Seducing Doctor Lewis (La Grande Séduction), however both are from the same writer.