A small fishing village needs a resident doctor in order to entice a factory to their island so the inhabitants can get off the government dole.  With that initiating problem plot point, this French-Canadian film offers a different kind of slapstick comedy.  It's simple, lightweight and sort of homey in a French way. 

            The venue for the story was called St. Marie Island, however it was really filmed at Harrington Harbor in Saquenay County on the lower north shore of the St. Lawrence River, Quebec.  It is touted as Quebec's most picturesque village and I don't think it has changed much in a hundred years.  The following two links display photos taken in 1907 and 1940.  It's much the same way the village looked in this film released in 2003.  It is easy to imagine great difficulty eking out a living from this harsh, unforgiving landscape.

< http://www.rootsweb.com/~qclns/tp_harrington_1907.jpg>

< http://www.rootsweb.com/~qclns/tp_harrington_1940s.jpg>

Two authors who use this kind of tough, barren environment for their stories are Annie Proux (Shipping News, Close Range) and Alistair MacLeod (No Great Mischief).

            Although Seducing Dr. Lewis is quite a silly story, it still follows some of the rules for a successful plot; it begins with a problem and there are foolish obstacles along the way creating crises.  Then there's more or less a climax and a resolution. 

It was innocuous entertainment with a few good laughs and I found the French-Canadian humor different and interesting.  The village characters were like an old world neighborhood and there was no reticence about participation.  Everything was done with a great deal of energy and enthusiasm.  Also the plot essentially avoided sexuality as a drawing card even though the town was trying to 'seduce' the doctor.  This would have been the first line of attack in an American story and its absence here makes a statement about the French-Canadian normal view of sex.  This fact particularly stands out because the village postmistress, Eve, is a beautiful woman, apparently single, and the only young beauty in town.  Yet she is a background icon in the storyline.  Of course there were earthy sexual innuendos and jokes in the dialogue unrelated to Eve while she stayed aloof.  Maybe she was waiting for an apple tree.

Reviewed February 3, 2005

No Rating available: probably PG-13 for sexual innuendos.