"One Week" - the film ...
 

Has anyone hired this film yet?

It stars Joshua Jackson (currently in Fringe and used to be the other guy in Dawson's Creek many moons ago). I didn't initially realise he was Canadian, by the way. D'oh!

The film shows a wonderful and subtly amusing journey across Canada, from Toronto to Tofino on Van Island, and highlighting some really silly landmarks along the way, all to the storyline of a guy who has just discovered he has cancer. Laugh a minute, huh?

But it's really good. It made me smile anyway. It is sooooo Canadian. The narration is wonderful.

It must be just about the lowest budget film I have ever watched - special effects, forget it. You can shiver at how cold the main character becomes in this vast land, though from the colours in the background, I'd say it was filmed in the autumn.

The director's extras on the DVD are worth watching too.

Anyway, that's my recommendation for the week. It's not a chick flick - but it might make you momentarily ponder the big stuff in life. Enjoy.

Re: "One Week" - the film ...
 

Move over Barry Norman

Re: "One Week" - the film ...
 

Little bit of help for you on this can be found here.

Another really Canadian low budget movie I just watched is the Sweet Hereafter (link on Zip.ca if you are on that). It's another movie with a not very cheery subject dealing with the after effects of a school bus crash, but really well done and worth a rent.

Re: "One Week" - the film ...
 

Couldn't they afford the full journey across Canada? :rofl:

Re: "One Week" - the film ...
 

;)


Noted!

One Week is not depressing - although the premise is a sad one, the story is just good. A Norton, the Stanley Cup, the world's biggest tee-pee - it's just silly, and amusing, and very Canadian.

Nah, not on their budget! Think the director lived in Toronto, and they could only afford to go one way, so West it was!!! :p

Re: "One Week" - the film ...
 

Been there, done that.....

Re: "One Week" - the film ...
 

Fab picture !

Re: "One Week" - the film ...
 

I love this film, acted well, scripted well, great narration.
I saw it at the 2008/9 Whistler Film festival premiere, the whole room was in tears at some points.
Its a great feelgood film, some dry comedy.

Highly recommend it for a quite night in, rainy day, which were not getting much of at the moment in BC.

Re: "One Week" - the film ...
 

That film is so very sad. It is a brilliant depiction of small town Canada though.

Re: "One Week" - the film ...
 

Did you not watch it all the way through to the end?
I guess you can take various approaches to the film; to me , the whole point of the film is that the guy is having the time of his life, doing what he always wanted, not sad at all.

Re: "One Week" - the film ...
 

And of course the US is saved on a 24 hourly basis by the most American Canadian out there, Kiefer Sutherland.

Re: "One Week" - the film ...
 

I think Dingbat may be referring to Sweet Hereafter ?

I found moments of One Weeks sad, but like you ScottDrummer, I found it quite uplifting, funny and hopeful.

Re: "One Week" - the film ...
 

Oops, ah I see. Sorry Dingbat

Re: "One Week" - the film ...
 

I'll add 2 more Canadian movies worth a watch:
Radiant City - "documentary" about living in the suburbs, filmed in Calgary
Last Night - about the lsat night on earth and how some Canadians chose to spend it

And one to avoid:
My Winnipeg - was liked by a few critics but way to bizarre for me, it's a poem/love letter in a film dedicated to Winnipeg

I've added One Week to my ziplist to give that a shot.

ScottDrummer I tried to apply your reply about One Week to the Sweet Hereafter and even though it is about one man's journey (Ian Holm), he is definately not having the time of his life! ;)

Re: "One Week" - the film ...
 

Great Canadian Film. Bon Cop, Bad Cop. A crime conedy/drama about a body that turns up straddling the border between Ontario and Quebec. As a result both a Quebec and Ontario detective have to work together to solve the murder, and the unravelling mystery. Different attitudes and styles of police work, plus switching back and forth between French and English (there are subtitles, don't worry) leads to a lot of language jokes, cultural differences, hockey and an entertaining film that couldn't be set anywhere else in the world but Canada.

Re: "One Week" - the film ...
 

^ that sounds great.


i really enjoyed one week.

Re: "One Week" - the film ...
 

I watched a Canadian film last night (!). The opening credits were rolling as I came in the house and I saw that it starred Arsinée Khanjian (and don't they all?) The film was called Sabah and it is, perhaps, the quintessential Toronto film. A family of Syrian-Canadians is living in comfortable disharmony when an unhypenated person enters their lives. Chaos ensues to a backdrop of streetcars, the CNN Tower and the flatiron building. The incongruity of there being a cradle Canadian, from Sudbury already, living in Toronto is milked heavily for what little humour the film contains. The plot id leaden, the outcome predictable, a crueler person might say that in itself reflects Toronto, but I'm feeling generous; ignore the cardboard cutout characters and their simple interactions, in the details the film well captures life in the city.

Re: "One Week" - the film ...
 

I just the DVD second hand from blockbuster - OK I'm a cheap bastard! - and it was worth the money.

Damned with faint praise::rofl:

Actually it was pretty good - not a "blockbuster" styule movie. More quiet and unassuming, but well paced, fairly humourous and gave a good pictorial view of Canada.

I liked the guys riding across Canada on the Canadian Tire special bikes - stopping in at every town to replace them with new ones LOL.

But there's got to be more than being Canadian than understanding "rrrrroll-up-the-rim-to-win!"

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Glad you enjoyed it ...

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That sounds a bit too "worthy" for me ...

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Blimey, you're the one who's suggesting a slow moving low budget film with ethnic characters and humour requiring specific local cultural knowledge.

Re: "One Week" - the film ...
 

Went to a test screening last year at Atom Egoyan's bar on Queen West in Toronto. Afterwards had a few pints of Guinness with the director.
I enjoyed it, although i'm not certain how close to the one I saw the commercial release would be.

Unashamedly Canadian.

Re: "One Week" - the film ...
 

True :D

Your director sounds more serious and ambitious than mine ;)

Re: "One Week" - the film ...
 

Oh yes. I certainly wouldn't have rented that film. Not terrible though, lots of Bollywoodish sequences and th unhyphenated guy wasn't too wooden.

Re: "One Week" - the film ...
 

'lets all hate Toronto' got pretty tiresome very quickly...and I'm not a big fan of YYZ.

Fubar...now there is classic movie about un-hypenated Canajuns.