The director of Starbuck, Ken Scott, is remaking the film in English with an American cast, which I found to be interesting because I had never heard of a director remaking his own film before. That movie, called The Delivery Man, will be out this October and stars Vince Vaughn as the main character, with Chris Pratt and Cobie Smulders in supporting roles. This version, however, is French with English subtitles, although the characters live in Montreal (not France), and was actually very funny; the American version has big shoes to fill if it is to be as good as this version.
David Wozniak (Patrick Huard) works as a meat delivery man, and has a kinda/sorta girlfriend - they date, but he hasn't seen her in a while. One day, when he shows up at her doorstep with flowers at 3 AM (his idea of a romantic gesture), she tells him that she's pregnant, but that she will raise the baby herself. He decides to change his bachelor ways so that he will be a good father, but soon he finds out some unsettling news: he's already a father to 533 other children, who are now in their 20s. From 1988-1990, he donated sperm over 600 times, which apparently ended up with 533 successful pregnancies, and now 142 of those children are suing the clinic to find out who "Starbuck" (his alias there) is. David's friend Avocat (Antoine Bertrand), who is a lawyer, suggests that they sue the clinic to protect David's privacy - a counter lawsuit - and since David currently is having some money issues, he agrees. Now David has to decide if he wants to do what is right - reveal his identity - or hopefully win the lawsuit and keep the money from it.
This movie was funny but very slow. David decides that although he can't be a "real" father to all of his children, he wants to be something of a "guardian angel," and he sets out to befriend some of them whose personal information he has received. His friend Avocat has four children of his own, and Avocat keeps telling David that he shouldn't want to have children; there are a few example scenes of this, too, that made me laugh.
Yes, see this movie, just be aware it moves at a crawling pace - however, if you don't mind foreign language films, this is one of the better foreign movies I've seen lately. It actually was the most successful movie made in Quebec in 2011 when it was released there, bringing in almost $3.5 million at the box office, and it's easy to see why: the characters and acting are all spot-on and the humor is great throughout. David is kind of a "manchild" - he's 42 but lives his life without responsibilities, for the most part, other than work - and he has to grow up very fast during this movie, as well as learn about what a "good father" actually is/does.
Starbuck opened in theaters yesterday, April 12th, and is rated R with a runtime of 109 minutes. 3.5 stars out of 5.
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Liz Parker is a University of Michigan graduate with a degree in Creative Writing and Literature, and she loves going to the movies. Visit her at her movie blog Yes/No Films
