Seducing Doctor Lewis

Chosen to close the Director's Fortnight section of the 2003 Cannes Film Festival, director Jean-François Pouliot's comedy chronicles the chaos wreaked when a small, down-on-its-luck town is seduced by the promise of having a big-time manufacturing plant — on one unique condition. It seems that the company isn't willing to move to the isolated, Quebec-countryside burgh unless the mayor (Raymond Bouchard) and townsfolk can procure a doctor for them. Salvation arrives in the form of Lewis (David Boutin), a mild-mannered man from Montreal whom the townspeople begin to try to impress, persuade, or otherwise cajole into taking the job. Their methods, however, become so devious — going so far as to tap the good doctor's phone line — that they run the risk of being found out, and upsetting their one shot at prosperity in the process. — Michael Hastings