The Grand Seduction is a 2013 Canadian film directed by Don McKeller. It is the English-speaking remake of another Canadian film, French-speaking from Quebec this one, 2003's La Grande Séduction.
The town of Tickle Head, Newfoundland and Labrador was once a proud fishing community back in the days when cod fishing was a prosperous, booming industry. However, since the cod fish ran out, business in town has dried up. Nowadays, the townsfolk get all their money from welfare checks, and most of the young residents have left for work in St. John's across the bay.
However, not all hope is lost for the residents of Tickle Head. The mayor has been negotiating to have a petrochemical facility built in the town. However, one of the conditions is that the town needs a doctor, which they've been trying to obtain (unsuccessfully) for the past 8 years.
Lucky for them, they eventually find their doctor when Dr. Paul Lewis (Taylor Kitsch) is detained at the airport after cocaine is found in his luggage. The agent, the former mayor of Tickle Head, agrees to overlook this discovery if Paul will live in Tickle Head for one month.
From there, Murray French (Brendan Gleeson) convinces the rest of the townsfolk to try to "seduce" Paul into wanting to stay in Tickle Head, permanently, thus ensuring that the town gets the facility. With that plan in mind, the townsfolk go along with his plan to make Tickle Head Dr. Lewis' kind of town.
The Grand Seduction contains examples of:
- Agony of the Feet: Frank has a case of Athlete's Foot that's been creeping up to become "Athlete's Leg" because he hasn't been able to see a doctor in a long while.
- Berserk Button: Henry doesn't like it when people tell him his job could be handled by an ATM. It sets him off enough to approve a huge loan that gets him fired.
- "Blackmail" Is Such an Ugly Word: The oil executive asks that Tickle Head put up a financial "surety" in order to seal the deal on the town getting a new petrochemical facility built in town. Murray quickly realizes that the man is actually asking for a bribe.
- Book Ends: The film begins and ends with a shot of the people of Tickle Head "celebrating" the town's prosperity, with a puff of smoke rising from the chimneys afterwards.
- Chekhov's Gunman: The mayor is a rare example of the trope where the character's introduction and "gunman" moments both take place within the first fifteen minutes. The mayor leaves town within the first couple of scenes to take a job in another town, which initially just seems like a way to symbolize the Dying Town nature of Tickle Head. However, two scenes later, the former mayor encounters Dr. Lewis at his new job and sends Lewis to Tickle Head, kicking off the town's eponymous "seduction" of Lewis.
- Didn't Think This Through: The townspeople pretend to be cricket buffs to try to form a Commonality Connection with cricket fan Dr. Lewis and stage a game for him. It is only after they get started that they realize that none of them know which team to pretend to be on during the victory celebration.
- Dying Town: Tickle Head, since the fish supply ran out. Getting a petro facility built there could turn that around for them.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Murray's efforts work out in the end. Henry approves a loan to get the oil executive his desired bribe while Paul decides to stay in Tickle Head and be the town's doctor, thus ensuring Tickle Head gets the facility. Once it does, the town starts getting real money in, returning a sense of pride to the folks there.
- Insurance Fraud: At the beginning of the film, Murray uses a blatantly false power of attorney (from a dead man, no less) to claim a second welfare check for himself.
- Invented Individual: Murray lies about having a dead son who Paul reminds him of in order to bond with Paul.
- Man of the City: Murray's love for Tickle Head, the Dying Town he grew up in, causes him to enlist his neighbors in spending a month hard at work using all kinds of deceptions and enticements to convince Dr. Lewis to move to the town permanently, as Tickle Head needs a doctor before a plastics company will consider building an economy-reviving factory near the village.
- Massive Numbered Siblings:
- Murray's prologue shows that he came from a large and happy family.
- One of the many patients Paul gets soon after coming to Tickle Head is a woman with multiple children. She lists the kids' various medical problems, then states she thinks she needs birth control.
- Moose and Maple Syrup: The film is set in Newfoundland & Labrador and pokes gentle fun at stereotypes of the Canadian Maritimes.
- Older Sidekick Simon is about twenty years older than Murray, but acts as his confidant and main assistant throughout Murray’s Zany Scheme to save the town.
- Smoking Hot Sex: Symbolized with puffs of smoke rising from the chimneys of the houses.
- Stay in the Kitchen: Murray begins the film believing that men should be providers, and is ashamed of himself when Barbara leaves Tickle Head to find work.
- Those Two Girls: The two elderly switchboard operators who eavesdrop on Paul's calls share all of their scenes and provide a lot of comedy and very little drama.
- Truth in Television: The collapse of the cod fishery from overfishing ravaged fishing communities up and down the Atlantic coast, and few have been able to recover fully in the decades since.
- The Voice: Dr. Lewis's unfaithful fiancée Helen never appears in person but is heard during a few phone calls the townspeople eavesdrop on.
