What do you do if you’re the mayor of a small town in the grip of an economic downturn and you need to attract new investment? Why, you concoct a big, good-natured scam, of course! That, at least, seems to be the lesson in Don McKellar’s new film, The Grand Seduction, which has posted its first trailer online.
Brendan Gleeson stars as Murray, a fisherman from the small harbour town of Tickle Head who is forced to live on welfare when resources dry up. Prohibited from fishing enough to make a living and with the community spirit having faded a long time ago, the Mayor comes up with a dazzling plan: a giant corporation need a location to build a factory and he thinks that Tickle Head could be just the place.
But there’s just one problem: in order to qualify, they must have a doctor in residence. When the Mayor leaves the harbour and takes a job at the airport, he fortuitously stumbles upon Paul Lewis (Taylor Kitsch), an American cricket fanatic and more importantly a doctor, who he convinces to do a one-month stint as the local physician. In order to persuade Paul to stay, the locals take to hacking his phone and stalking him to learn what he likes, even encouraging everyone to take up Paul's favourite game…
Whimsy seems to be the order of the day here, with gentle comedy that wouldn’t seem out of place on a BBC Sunday night comedy drama. The Grand Seduction will nuzzle up to our cinemas on August 29.