Movie Review: One Week

**** (Thats four star out of five stars)

This is my first movie review ever and my first official entry on the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). Last night, my beloved and I attended the premiere screeing of One Week, a Canadian made film for Canadians, funded by Canadians.

First of all, let me say something briefly about the TIFF. I think it is pretty cool that Toronto now hosts the largest international film festival in the world. It has come a long way in the past ten years and I think it is pretty respected by industry people. My beloved loves to go every year and I usually get to pass, but this year she selected a film she thought I would like, and along I went with her into downtown Toronto (traffic, parking, etc.).

We got there are proceeded to line up with several hundred other TIFF lovers and I felt like cattle being lined up for the slaughter. At any given time, I expected to have someone come along with a hot branding iron and sear my ass. I was, however, far more worried about keeping an eye out for the bloke with the pneumatic nail gun looking for the quick, clean kill.

We finally arrived in the theatre to find a couple of seats way up in the balcony of Roy Thompson Hall and settled into the tiny seats for the show. I am not particularly loving the TIFF experience at the moment.

Then it all changes. The movie starts.

This is the story about a man who finds out he is terminally ill and decides to purchase a vintage Norton motorcycle and take a short trip for no other reason to be by himself and live a little before beginning the treatment that will, in all likelihood, end up killing him faster.

(The idea of watching a guy drive a Norton around for an hour and a half was the main reason I wanted to see the film).

His two day trip turns out to be a one week journey across Canada during which he visits some of Canada's most famous tourist stops along the way, all the while evaluating his life: the giant goose at Wawa, the Terry Fox memorial in northern Ontario, the prairies and Banff Springs Hotel. At a motel in Saskatchewan, he meets up with another biker and chat about life while smoking a joint. The biker was played by Gord Downie of the Tragically Hip. I am a big fan of Gord.

His journey ends on a surfboard in the Pacific Ocean where a whale breaches nearby. The photography is incredible, the journey picturesque and the storyline leaving you evaluating your own life. At least it did for me. Maybe it was a british motorcycle travelling across Canada with a forty-something pilot behind the bars struck so close to home.

While the main character discovered he had "settled" and often yielded to life rather than pursuing his dreams, I am glad to say that in the quintessential post-movie analysis conducted by my beloved and I on the ride home, I was left knowing that I have not and I am very grateful for what I have been given.

Wait, there is one regret. I have never owned a Norton.