"One Week" is a deeply flawed film, but still a charming one which I don't regret seeing. The film is a relationship drama meets disease of the week flick meets Canadian road movie. I went to see the latter and got what I wanted. "One Week" made me want to pack a bag, make perfect road trip playlists, and drive all the way from where I am in Calgary to the Atlantic. There is nothing overstated or over-romanticized about the road trip here. Canada really IS that lovely and that pretty and that charming, and there ARE that many lovely little places to stop at, that many cute diners, that many gorgeous women, that many oddball bikers.
Unfortunately "One Week" employs disastrous omniscient narration and revealing exactly what it is would be a spoiler but it made it even more insufferable. Occasionally really witty but mostly suffering from Dave Eggers syndrome this device really lets down the movie in general. The relationship drama feels incredibly hollow (though not really shallow), but the disease of the week aspect is surprisingly effective. The lead character played by Joshua Jackson is relatively well-drawn, and Jackson is really, really good (didn't think I would be saying that really, even though I've always found him a charming actor), which on its own gives his journey emotional relevance.
One of the things Canadian critics didn't like about the film (which received solid but not especially appreciative reviews, around what it deserved) was what they perceived to be a 'look how great Canada is' mentality. I don't see that in the movie. The movie rests on sentimentality. Occasionally it goes into really sappy territory and that's where its biggest failings lie, but I mean sentimentality in the purest sense: emotional idealism. Of course you'll get the bitter cynics who claim great moments in life don't exist but "One Week" captures that emotion, that mindset quite effectively at some points, then totally veers off track in others.
The movie's dependency on the sentimental quality of the sort of trip Joshua Jackson's character in this film takes means that the trip is going to be presented as memorable and wonderful. My road trips in Canada have been. Sure, there's a couple of dumb TH jokes and one unbelievable line spoken by a German tourist near the end but overall it actually is surprisingly tasteful in this regard: a celebration of Canada but not in an overly ludicrous fashion, and not with quite the same fervor and schmaltz "Passchendaele", the last Canadian film to receive this sort of distribution, featured. The Gord Downie cameo, for instance, could have been a cheesy 'look how Canadian we are' moment but if you had never seen Gord before (which, if you're watching this movie, you probably have, but nevermind) you wouldn't know it was him because it's just another part in the film, one which is very relevant to the journey of the film.
This is a charming film I'm really happy I saw, but its unfortunate flaws keep it from excellence, and some of it is really mediocre. Still recommended for a one-time viewing, and is fairly unique for doing Canada's scenery justice, and beautifully photographed.
Unfortunately "One Week" employs disastrous omniscient narration and revealing exactly what it is would be a spoiler but it made it even more insufferable. Occasionally really witty but mostly suffering from Dave Eggers syndrome this device really lets down the movie in general. The relationship drama feels incredibly hollow (though not really shallow), but the disease of the week aspect is surprisingly effective. The lead character played by Joshua Jackson is relatively well-drawn, and Jackson is really, really good (didn't think I would be saying that really, even though I've always found him a charming actor), which on its own gives his journey emotional relevance.
One of the things Canadian critics didn't like about the film (which received solid but not especially appreciative reviews, around what it deserved) was what they perceived to be a 'look how great Canada is' mentality. I don't see that in the movie. The movie rests on sentimentality. Occasionally it goes into really sappy territory and that's where its biggest failings lie, but I mean sentimentality in the purest sense: emotional idealism. Of course you'll get the bitter cynics who claim great moments in life don't exist but "One Week" captures that emotion, that mindset quite effectively at some points, then totally veers off track in others.
The movie's dependency on the sentimental quality of the sort of trip Joshua Jackson's character in this film takes means that the trip is going to be presented as memorable and wonderful. My road trips in Canada have been. Sure, there's a couple of dumb TH jokes and one unbelievable line spoken by a German tourist near the end but overall it actually is surprisingly tasteful in this regard: a celebration of Canada but not in an overly ludicrous fashion, and not with quite the same fervor and schmaltz "Passchendaele", the last Canadian film to receive this sort of distribution, featured. The Gord Downie cameo, for instance, could have been a cheesy 'look how Canadian we are' moment but if you had never seen Gord before (which, if you're watching this movie, you probably have, but nevermind) you wouldn't know it was him because it's just another part in the film, one which is very relevant to the journey of the film.
This is a charming film I'm really happy I saw, but its unfortunate flaws keep it from excellence, and some of it is really mediocre. Still recommended for a one-time viewing, and is fairly unique for doing Canada's scenery justice, and beautifully photographed.