### Couple of spoilers here so watch out if you're going to see it ### This film follows a young man's journey across his homeland of Canada after he receives some bad news. He decides to escape for one week of freedom before facing the music, much to the consternation of his fiancée and family.
Over the course of the journey he meets some people, sees some sights, and reflects on his life, and his relationships with his fiancée/family. The whole thing is intermittently narrated by an unrelated third person, who talks you through flashbacks of the main protagonist's life, and provides other helpful trivia about him & the places he's visiting. Now I read that some people were annoyed by the narration. Got to say it didn't annoy me at all - felt it added a lot to it actually - some very interesting facts, and some fun stuff. Without all that I think it would have been a bit dry actually. In fact I'd go as far to say it's a clever mechanism for connecting you more with the main character.
As you might expect, you get some nice shots of the Canadian countryside, though I felt that could've been exploited to better effect with the right shots.
Everyone's different but I personally found it really hard to imagine an engaged guy in his predicament trying to hop in the sack with every woman he sees. Didn't sit right with me, unless the guy's a total slimeball which this character doesn't seem to be in every other respect. Just goes to reinforce the annoying Hollywood myth that any guy will try to do that with any girl he meets, regardless of whether he's married, in a relationship etc. Hey maybe there's some guys like that but I really don't think most are. Anyway I'm not so I don't care for the stereotype and it killed the movie a little for me.
All in all, it's a relaxed, no brainer, kinda feel-good film ... yet tinged with an upsetting issue throughout. That said, it handles said upsetting issue in about as non-depressing fashion as possible. Not overly sentimental either. It doesn't try to be anything clever, just tells the story, which is a bold and welcome move these days. The main actors are pretty good, the cinematography's decent enough, and there's some cool music along the way. Oh and I thought the ending was a nice touch.
How to classify this film? - sort of like Straight Story meets Dying Young(which I literally just found out starred the narrator of this film - knew I recognised that voice from somewhere!).
Over the course of the journey he meets some people, sees some sights, and reflects on his life, and his relationships with his fiancée/family. The whole thing is intermittently narrated by an unrelated third person, who talks you through flashbacks of the main protagonist's life, and provides other helpful trivia about him & the places he's visiting. Now I read that some people were annoyed by the narration. Got to say it didn't annoy me at all - felt it added a lot to it actually - some very interesting facts, and some fun stuff. Without all that I think it would have been a bit dry actually. In fact I'd go as far to say it's a clever mechanism for connecting you more with the main character.
As you might expect, you get some nice shots of the Canadian countryside, though I felt that could've been exploited to better effect with the right shots.
Everyone's different but I personally found it really hard to imagine an engaged guy in his predicament trying to hop in the sack with every woman he sees. Didn't sit right with me, unless the guy's a total slimeball which this character doesn't seem to be in every other respect. Just goes to reinforce the annoying Hollywood myth that any guy will try to do that with any girl he meets, regardless of whether he's married, in a relationship etc. Hey maybe there's some guys like that but I really don't think most are. Anyway I'm not so I don't care for the stereotype and it killed the movie a little for me.
All in all, it's a relaxed, no brainer, kinda feel-good film ... yet tinged with an upsetting issue throughout. That said, it handles said upsetting issue in about as non-depressing fashion as possible. Not overly sentimental either. It doesn't try to be anything clever, just tells the story, which is a bold and welcome move these days. The main actors are pretty good, the cinematography's decent enough, and there's some cool music along the way. Oh and I thought the ending was a nice touch.
How to classify this film? - sort of like Straight Story meets Dying Young(which I literally just found out starred the narrator of this film - knew I recognised that voice from somewhere!).