The Fundamental Problems (SPOILERS)

I had looked forward to this movie for a long time. (To much the same degree, for personal reasons, as 'Watchmen' and 'Benjamin Button'.) Canadian film offerings are few and far between, so this one, from the director of 'Saint Ralph' was an especially anticipated one. How sad that it turned out to be as it did.

The film is, at its core. a road-trip flick, a personal redemption story...a 'hero's journey' tale.
Or at least, it was supposed to be.
'One Week's premise is about as powerful a one as you could ask for: a dying man decides that, before taking on aggressive anti-cancer treatment, that he needs to go on an adventure. (This also impacts impending wedding plans, and his relationship with his fiancée...)
So.
One would think that with these very salient elements, and the especially dramatic compression of time and Life-leading-to-Death, that the movie would mine everything it had at its disposal.
Um...wrong.

I think the first of the aforementioned fundamental problems is the lead actor, Joshua Jackson. I believe him to be a very nice person. But as an actor, he's always reminded me of a wooden Keanu Reeves.
This role (had it been written properly; I'll get to that in a moment) was a gift. As I was watching Jackson in the part (his other role in this effort was as one of the Executive Producers), I couldn't help but a) wonder how ineffective the film was going to get (I don't like using the word 'bad'), and b) imagine other actors in the part. Ones for whom audience empathy and connection would guarantee a more potent experience for those having paid for the privilege. (Although more of the names escape me presently, I know that Joseph Fiennes was there. Maybe he's merely representative of what I envisioned in Jackson's place.)
I could go on about how his performance just didn't work, but I'll sum it up this way: I didn't care that he was dying of cancer. Even in the most potent moments, even at the most compelling scene of all, in their bed near the end of the movie, it was Liane Balaban's performance that had me welling-up. Jackson's? Made me mutter 'Meh.'

The second is the script. Or, more specifically, the story.
And even now, I'm still scratching my head. "You've got a guy...dying of cancer...leaving his fiancée behind to go on a last-chance at adventure road-trip before tackling chemo...and THIS is the best you can come up with?"
Complicating the effort is the 'I AM CANADIAN!' backdrop.
Before I move on, did anyone at all think of Jackson's character as someone who was either having his eyes opened about this vast country he was crossing, or someone who already had a big heart for the nation, and the trip just reinforced it? Aside from his comments to the European tourists on the beach (Tourist: "...you live in one of the most beautiful countries in the world!" Jackson: "I know."), I got NOTHING from his adventure. Or, more to the point, Jackson's character seemed to get nothing from his adventure.
As I've said elsewhere on these boards, if this had been an Irish film, and English film, a French film...even a Norwegian film...set in each of those countries, I'd bet a kajillion dollars that the use of the country itself would have been done far more effectively, with far more poignancy. I'm a huge Canada-lover, I deeply, deeply cherish my home-and-native-land...and again, the same philosophical term kept bursting past my lips: 'Meh.'
The backdrop actually ended up adding far more to the story than it might have/should have...mostly because the story was so weak.
Road-trips, adventures of personal discovery, mobile tales of redemption... All of these usually have interludes with people along the way wherein the Hero is challenged, given some kind of pearl of wisdom to aid him in the process. (Of both getting to his destination, and arriving in a better place emotionally and psychologically.
Remember, this is film. It's not internal.
(Except of course in 'One Week', where we have The Poor Storyteller's Crutch, The Narrator. I won't belabour the point here: look up my comment in the thread 'I BEG TO DIFFER - Review by a Canadian Filmmaker'.)
The only way we can see the effects on Jackson's character is in what he does and the verbal exchanges between him and the people he comes in contact with.
Let's see...there's the female rancher/farmer...Gord Downey...Emm Gryner...the Newfoundland cyclists...
Well.
Considering that Jackson's character is, at the very least, bland, these really didn't give the Story Gods much to work with.
And it shows.
Great stories have great conflicts. And the only conflicts in this film were a) the one between Jackson and his fiancée regarding him not being in treatment, and b) the internal ones...which, considering we're talking Life and Death here, sure weren't mined all that well...at least as the script was written. If you don't have conflict in your story? You sure better have something else that's just as invigourating.

I tend to draw a distinction between 'stories' and 'situations' in cinema.
Mainstream films are, conventionally, stories. Action-driven.
Indie films, are, conventionally, situations. Character-driven.
'One Week' is neither.
It's not an action-driven film, where we have a ton going on. It's not a good story.
And it's surely not a character-driven indie-type film, because clearly, Jackson's tattoo is 'Meh'. So it's not a sufficiently compelling situation, either.
There's not enough going on to make you wonder 'What the hell is going to happen next?!?' and there's so little of Jackson's character revealed...especially in the sense of 'arc', that is, the changes he undergoes and how they're revealed...that I cannot imagine anyone being captivated by the film on a personal engagement level.

Having said all that, what are we left with?
We're left with a film that should never have gone into production as written. Or at least, if what was on the screen reflects what was on the page, it should never have been shot.
We're left with an offering that is not only a good reflection of those involved, but also a lost opportunity to get Canadians interested in (Anglophone) homegrown fare.
And finally, if you're like me, you're left wondering 'What the...?"
And consoling yourself with a single-worded mantra as you shake your head and scowl, moving on to the next filmgoing experience: 'Meh.'