The Grand Seduction
Director: Don McKellar
Talent: Brendan Gleeson, Taylor Kitsch, Liane Balaban, Gordon Pinsent
Release Date: 29th August 2014
The story of a small Newfoundland community jumping through hoops to attract corporate investment, The Grand Seduction is a paean to big oil, entrepreneurial spirit and “progress” that couches itself, improbably, in a comedy of parochial nostalgia. Pitched as a return to the halcyon days of a cottage fishing industry, of romance, and of community values, the film’s conceit is such that the townsfolk, led by Brendan Gleeson, must convince a city slicker doctor (Taylor Kitsch) to become their local physician so as to fulfil the terms of an application to a major oil company for the construction of a petrochemical plant nearby, thus returning to them employment, a sense of purpose and also, bizarrely, apparently *relatedly*, and most disturbingly of all, their collective sex drive. Which is to say that this is, ultimately, a film about the mystical, psychosexual power of capitalism, and the joys of subjecting oneself wholly to its machinations. In this regard, its complete and utter joylessness gradually leaves the viewer with no other option but to consider the very imminent possibility that nobody involved in its production has ever actually had sex before.
Words: Oisín Murphy-Hall
For more cinema coverage this month, check out our reviews of:
Hector and the Search for Happiness, The Rover, Pudsey The Dog: The Movie, Boyhood, Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon, Grand Central, Finding Vivian Maier & Joe
