Review of One Week (2008) by Mike C — 23 May 2011

Is there anything more cliche than finding out you have a short time to live and trying to make the most of it? Well, yes, you can take that unoriginal premise and do lots of other unoriginal things to complete an unoriginal package. Still, it was a pretty sweet bike, and those were some lovely, depressing songs.

Jackson is diagnosed with stage IV cancer, and instead of seeking immediate treatment, embarks on a huge road trip on his brand new used motorcycle. While he does visit a very beautiful Canadian backdrop, he also spends a lot of time finding man-made giants (the "biggests") which are the antithesis of beautiful. That's pretty sketchy and not what I imagine someone to do in their final days...unless they are cliche and looking for meaning in silly ways.

A lot of what Ben does is borderline ridiculous. I do like the way he touches lives. A favorite hidden gem of mine is Man Push Cart, where a coffee cart guy in NYC ends up impacting people despite beinga coffee cart guy. I like to think about impact on people so naturally enjoyed that storyline. Of particular cool is the lady who gets off work early and makes the 5:45 train instead of the usual 6:30 train, which happens to crash that day and kill a bunch of people. That type of stuff happens every day. In this movie, it happens a lot in one week (kinda, though rarely on that scale so the argument can be made we all impact lives in little ways each day).

Some of the online reviews I saw ripped into the movie pretty good. As spot on as they seemed to be, there is a certain likablility factor of the movie that cannot be overlooked. Others compare the movie to the musical Once. Again, they correctly write that Once is a far superior flick in just about every way. But as slow dramas go, this is acceptable.