At best, he was speaking with an Ontario accent. For the love of God, he didn't even pronounce "Quebec" correctly. Even the road maps they showed in the movie had him driving to and from the north border of Michigan.
It really seems like the character was supposed to be from Ontario all along, and then they decided to throw in the Quebec angle at the last minute.
The movie code name was Quebec, when they were filming it, in Chicago. I suspect that the name was choosen in order to bring some exotism (ie, to no be 100% American), but to be close none the less to American culture. As for the accent, the comments on the DVD mention that he selected to have "some" accent, not trying to have any specific one.
shareJust watched this movie and his accent annoyed me to no end. I haven't encountered anyone in my entire life in Ontario who speaks with that accent. And I also have never heard any Anglo-Quebeckers speak with that accent. He just chose the stereotype of a Canadian accent (i.e. east coast, Newfoundland) - and couldn't even get that right. Worst. Ever.
shareThe accent seemed like an odd choice to me. The only Canadians I've ever encountered who had accents distinguishable from Americans are French Canadians, and people from the sticks way up north. His accent sounded like a strange amalgamation of Newfoundland and Irish, and like he was accidentally copying the accent the actress playing his wife was doing in their scenes together. All the accents needed to go, all they did was distract me from what was going on. Interesting to make him Canadian, but trying to artificially make "Canadian" into something "exotic" was a very poor choice. I'm sorry but Canadians aren't exotic, not anymore than someone from Maine or Alaska. Reilly is from Chicago, Canada is a short boat ride away. His own accent probably sounds far more authentic than whatever the hell that was he was doing.
shareI wasn't so much bothered by his accent as by the "Scottish" one of his wife.
That really was all over the place, sounding closer to Australian at times...
When I'm gone I would like something to be named after me. A psychiatric disorder, for example.
I don't know where you guys are getting a Newfoundland vibe from his weird accent. No one here sounds remotely like that. He sounds like he was auditioning for Fargo to me.
shareToward the end of the film there is a phone call with his wife in which he appears to be mimicking her “Scottish” accent. It was so blatant that I expected it to have something to do with a plot twist.