Okay, this one is about this dude John Logue (played by Breckin Meyer) who is working for John Kerry’s campaign in 2004. Kerry loses, and now John is obligated by his own blog claims to “move to Canada”. It’s like a really long drive, so he holds interviews to have someone go with him and finds Chloe Hamon (played by Anna Paquin). Chloe is chosen based on the lie, that she worked for the Kerry campaign as well. John doesn’t really have a great plan for all this, so he’s just going to hook up with a group that runs the marryacanadian.ca website. Yeah – I am not kidding. Off to Winnipeg, we go.
So I have never been to Canada so I am not one to judge. Having said that, if the NHL players are any indication of how dull Winnipeg is…then it’s pretty damn bad. It’s literally the least favorite city for players to go to in the entire league. Apparently, John didn’t read that bit of information, because that is the place he picks to go in this thing. Sadly, the majority of this movie is him complaining about George Bush or America. All this while not really producing anything positive, once Kerry loses, to try and change things. Meyer is decent in the role and somewhat likable at times, but his family drama is a massive downer. So don’t go into this movie expecting a comedy. You are not really getting a comedy. You are getting a bunch of mopey bull crap for about 45 minutes. The other half of this movie is Chloe trying to keep her life together while letting out a pretty big secret along the way. Unlike John, Chloe isn’t doing a ton of complaining until she finds out just how bad John’s plan to move to Canada really is. Her personality contrasts John’s pretty well, which I guess sort of lends a bit to the romance side of this story, but even that isn’t all that romantic. It also doesn’t help that Paquin and Meyer have zero on-screen chemistry.
Overall this movie for me, was somewhat rewarding in the end, but it took a long hard, and often annoying road on the way there. The dialog while interesting isn’t well written or thought out. The storyline is very simplistic but effective to an extent. I would watch this movie again, just to examine how the way you are brought up, and your parent's approach to things can affect your views on life, as well as extreme circumstances. So overall this is far more of a mental examination of two differing viewpoints than it is a lesson in, direction, cinematography, comedy, or romance, which is problematic if you walk in expecting any of that. Speaking of that, even the director Marshall Lewy only bothered directing one more film back in 2012 after this thing. He does still produce stuff.
This movie is not a political bash fest like some are claiming. It’s actually very even-handed. However, that doesn’t fix some of the issues I mentioned. It also makes Canada look terrible. I have to give this flick a 3 out of 7. Worth at least one watch if you are interested in politics and how that might affect your friendships etc.
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