Howdy y'all.
I am applying for this internship which would let me cover TIFF this September. If I got it, I would have access to press screenings, red carpets (I would die) and press conferences. Basically, I would be living the dream. Or at least, my dream.
For my application, I have to submit a review of a Canadian film. I chose, One Week, the new Joshua Jackson flick. Here's a preview of the article. (Please give me input, if you can!).
"In the first minutes of One Week, school teacher Benjamin Tyler (Joshua Jackson from TV’s Fringe) learns that he has Stage IV cancer. Then he allegedly shoots himself in the head. He says, at least when he’s dead he won’t have to mark any more English papers. This dark moment is all in Ben’s mind but it sets the tone for the quirky yet realistic Canadian film.
On his way home from the doctor, Benjamin rolls up the rim of his Timmy Hos coffee, and is greeted by something much more profound than a free donut. The rim reads, “GO WEST YOUNG MAN”. Being the Toronto boy that he is, he takes this to heart, buys an old motorcycle and hits the road, leaving his fiancé Samantha (Liane Balaban, playing a grown-up New Waterford Girl) at home. Samantha hates bikes, rating things out of 10, spontaneity and pretty much all the dreamy things Ben loves. But like many other cinematic road-trippers, he does not see how unsatisfying this relationship is until he leaves it behind for the harsh wind and unpaved gravel of the highway. The TransCanada highway, that is.
Ben’s story is told from the perspective of an omniscient narrator (Campbell Scott). At first, the narration is arresting with its overwrought metaphors (after Ben kisses the Stanley Cup, he says Ben hopes the players who had kissed the Cup before him will “body check his cancer into oblivion”) and wordplay (he calls Samantha’s distaste for Ben’s smelly feet “hostility towards his alleged foot fault”). Luckily, a few darkly hilarious and well-worded outbursts save the movie from becoming oddly pretentious. But they also make you wonder if Ben’s story would have worked better as a novel.
Between the typical run-ins with kitschy pit stops (I spy the World’s Largest Dinosaur and the Sudbury Nickel!) and eccentric roadside characters, there are some genuinely beautiful shots of Western Canada. However, this is not Into the Wild, where every piece of land is a sight of worship and philosophical reflection. The landscape is just one piece of Ben’s story and only becomes important when it means something to him.
Occasionally, the film appears to be a full-length promo for Canada. At one point, a couple on a beach tell Ben that he lives in “one of the most beautiful countries in the world.” Coming from the clichéd tourists, the sentiment comes off as insincere and tacky. But thanks to some classier Canadiana like cameos from The Tragically Hip’s Gord Downie, a sweet French Canadian tune and a Terry Fox memorial, the film feels less like an ad and more like a loving ode to the country.
Jackson shows some real range throughout his on-screen journey. One minute he is dancing at the side of the road, and the next, he’s crying his eyes out. This bi-polar performance is not quite spot-on but it is definitely an upgrade. One thing is for sure, he’s not in Dawson’s Creek anymore."
Thoughts?
Mood Music: "Can't Hardly Wait" by The Replacements
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