1817 - One Week

It's pretty common for Canadian filmmakers to shy away from Canadian content, mostly because of the fear that doing so limits a sale of their film to other territories around the world.  Michael McGowan is clearly not of that mindset.  You could almost go through a laundry list of Canadianna and find a lot of it in this film.  From Stanley Cups to roll-up-the-rim from Tim Horton's, it's all here - at least from Ontario through to the west.
I went back to look at my thoughts when I first watched this film and it's interesting how things shift and change.  I still enjoyed it - it's beautiful and really does show off just how gorgeous Canada is.  I'm not sure I'm in love with the narrative devise - there are moments where it's really wonderful, and others where it just felt a tinge precious.  I feel badly saying that, 'cause I think it's an interesting choice - I'm just not sure it works all the way through.  I had a tougher time with Joshua Jackson's character this time - he's a man who is told he has stage four Cancer, and decides to be selfish and go off on a road trip by himself before he has to go through becoming a patient.  I can only imagine what goes through your mind when you're dealing with the potential of death, but I still felt like he was a bit selfish to an unlikeable degree - and outside of that I guess I just didn't find the character all that compelling for the bulk of the film.  It's starting to sound like I disliked the film, but I assure you that wasn't the case.  I'm really quite surprised that I've had such a different reaction this time around.  Just imagine how I'll feel when I watch it down the line a third time...
So it's on Netflix in Canada if you haven't seen it - not sure how to view it outside of Canada.  If you haven't seen it, you absolutely should - if nothing else it's a beautiful postcard to the country I call home, and that I love more than any other.