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Movies & TV

One Week

ONE WEEK (Mongrel, 2008) D: Michael McGowan, w/ Joshua Jackson, Liaane Balaban. Rating: NNN DVD package: NNN Rating: NNN


Writer/director Michael McGowan has a livelier agenda for One Week than the pity party about to be conjured up by my plot summary. Diagnosed with cancer, young teacher Ben (Joshua Jackson) buys a motorcycle and heads west from Toronto, seeking meaning in his life.

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Except for the whiny music track (think acoustic strumming and wimpy voices), McGowan steers clear of melodrama by giving Ben’s road trip a comic tone largely carried by Jackson, a very expressive actor who exaggerates his reactions only slightly for comedy and underplays them in the serious moments. He’s helped along by deadpan comments on his inner life from an off-screen narrator.

Ben’s drama mostly plays out through his disintegrating relationship with his fiancée (Liane Balaban), but the focus is more on his trip and the wonderful scenery, oddball monuments to size – the Sudbury giant nickel, world’s largest fire hydrant, hockey stick and more – and the people Ben meets, some of whom seem to know more about him than they should.

McGowan explains that and some other touches of low-key mysticism in his entertaining and insightful commentary.

EXTRAS Commentary, making-of doc, director interview, McGowan and Jackson Q&A. Widescreen. English, French audio. No subtitles.

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