One Week

Great film, decent Blu
I am not Canadian, nor is my store in Canada, but I still thought this was a great Canadian travel film. This was one of the more realistic cancer films I have seen in a bit, and (I feel) not worthy of the hate club that campaigns against it.

Simply put, it is a film about a man who travels across his country after being diagnosed with a terminal illness. Like other good travel films, we see a sampling of the beautiful country that Canada has to offer, we encounter every-day personalities of people along the way and we learn a few lessons about ourselves and what life might be about. The difference here is that we get a insightful narration by Campbell Scott (most recognized of late with his role in Phoebe in Wonderland), which in itself provided some nice laugh-out-loud moments.

I laughed at unexpected moments, saw some incredible Canadian scenery, and did not feel anything was contrived or cardboard (as most complainants have stipulated). The special features...

Waking up in the Canadian Ethos
Ben Tyler discovers at the beginning of the film that he has a short time to live and despite the urgings of his fiancee and family to enter treatment immediately, he heads out on the road on a motorcycle. He takes photos of himself at man-made and natural landmarks, he meets people along the way who give him insights such as "if you need to ask if you are really in love, you aren't," and "I work the ranch without making enough money because there are other kinds of payments."

The other kinds of payments are hard to put into words. Things like being in contact with the wide open beauty of the land, or surfing, or enjoying the company of others.

It is a complex film that captures the feeling of settling for second best, of believing what people tell you about yourself, and then discovering they were wrong.

As a Canadian I identified strongly with Ben's journey. He has a romantic core, wants to instill some passion in his bored students -- but fails; he...

Well-written, peaceful, enjoyable film.
This was a great movie to stumble onto, thanks to Amazon's free Prime streaming. It's a great, scenic, peaceful, thought-provoking movie with good acting from the main character. And a nice motorcycle, to boot!

I found it well-written, with very little cruft, and without being overly dramatic. There is some great, understated humor - altogether, it strikes me as a very Canadian film :)

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