One Week (2008)
- 7.0
- 1h 34min
- Adventure, Drama
- 2009-03-06 (USA)
Storyline
Out of the blue, Ben learns he has stage IV cancer; survival, with treatment, is 10 percent. So this risk-averse, slow-to-act, quiet man buys a used motorcycle, says goodbye to Samantha, his baffled fiancée, and heads west from Toronto. He imagines it's a quest for Grumps, a mythical figure from his childhood; he takes digital photos of various "world's largest" roadside attractions; he chats with strangers, including two women; his bike slips on a dead skunk on the highway. Calls to Samantha meet with pleading that he return for treatment and anger that he won't. He doesn't want to be a patient yet. But, will he make discoveries, and what about Grumps? What's important?
Plot Keywords
road trip, canada, self discovery, diagnosis, terminal illness, mortality, motorcycle, grief, breakup, fiancee, marriage proposal, doctor, vehicle, taxi, memoir, book, memory, guitar, dog, infidelity
Short Review
Subsumed in Canada's vast landscape, Ben finds ephemeral distraction and occasional edification, but not much in the way of great epiphanies.
