An elegant antidote to the dumb comedy

“Seducing Dr. Lewis” arrives with the charm of a beloved friend we haven’t seen in the longest time. The kind of shrewd, genial comedy it provides doesn’t intend to break new ground, but its traditional satisfactions are so effectively done and so long in coming our way that to see it is to realize just how hungry we’ve been for this kind of old-fashioned treat.

It’s a hunger that turns out to be widely shared. This French-Canadian film did more than out-earn both “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” and “The Matrix Reloaded” on its home turf; it also was a success at two cutting-edge international festivals, the Directors Fortnight at Cannes and New York’s New Directors/New Films. Plus, it won seven Jutra awards and was nominated for 11 Genies, the Oscars of Quebec and Canada, respectively.

Although “Dr. Lewis” is reminiscent of such classic Ealing comedies as “Tight Little Island,” director Jean-Francois Pouliot claims as his inspiration the Fanny trilogy by France’s Marcel Pagnol, and he has a point. More than the language is French here -- there is a glint in this film’s eye and a roguishness about its characters that remind us that its original title was “La Grande Seduction.”

The film begins not with the good doctor but with the disgruntled inhabitants of Ste. Marie-La-Mauderne, a tiny fictitious island in Quebec’s far north. Once, narrator Germain (Raymond Bouchard) tells us, this was the home of proud fishermen. Now, with the fish gone, everyone lives on their monthly welfare checks, and the soul-destroying aspects of being on the dole are visible everywhere.

The island’s only hope of salvation is a proposed plastic kitchenware factory, but the contract stipulates a resident doctor, which Ste. Marie hasn’t had in 15 years. A determined Germain sends letters to every doctor in the province, but most merely chuckle at the thought and toss the request.

One of the tossers is handsome young plastic surgeon Christopher Lewis (David Boutin), happy to be living a cocaine and cellphone existence in Montreal. But a combination of circumstances finds Dr. Lewis as surprised as anyone to be headed out to the island for a one-month trial. That’s how much time he’s giving himself to consider the place’s virtues and, more important, that’s how long the 125 islanders have to persuade him that this benighted place is paradise on Earth.

Naturally, this turns out to be more complicated than anyone imagined, and, as written by Ken Scott, “Dr. Lewis” presents these difficulties with elegantly worked-out comic exactitude. The first thing the islanders discover, for instance, is that the good doctor is a fanatic for cricket, a game they can barely pronounce and find in some unspecified way disgusting. How they go about getting their visitor to think Ste. Marie is the cricket capital of North America is one of the film’s funniest running gags.

Another inspiration of Scott’s script is to enable the islanders to eavesdrop on the doctor as he makes daily calls to his girlfriend back in Montreal. This allows them to play him like an organ, putting his favorite dish on the menu in the town’s lone restaurant and in general anticipating his every desire.

No film like this works well without a graceful cast. Bouchard is eminently believable as the duplicitous Germain, and Benoit Briere and Pierre Collin are excellent as his feuding lieutenants. Easy to overlook, although absolutely essential, is Boutin as the gullible doctor. Being the perfect dupe and likable into the bargain is no easy assignment, but without it this film could not succeed.

“Dr. Lewis” is the first feature for director Pouliot, who has 15 years behind him as one of Canada’s top commercial directors. He brings just the right spirit of warmhearted fun to this film, almost an intuitive understanding of the kind of material he’s got and how it should be handled. It’s not just the credulous Dr. Lewis who gets seduced by this enterprise -- we’re happily taken in as well.

*

‘Seducing Dr. Lewis’

MPAA rating: Unrated

Times guidelines: Slight sexual innuendo, but basically suited for all ages

Raymond Bouchard ... Germain

David Boutin ... Dr. Lewis

Benoit Briere ... Henri

Pierre Collin ... Yvon

Lucie Laurier ... Eve

Released by Wellspring. Director Jean-Francois Pouliot. Producers Roger Frappier, Luc Vandal. Screenplay Ken Scott. Cinematographer Allen Smith. Editor Dominique Fortin. Costumes Louise Gagne. Music Jean-Marie Benoit. Production design Normand Sarazin. Running time: 1 hour,

49 minutes.

In limited release.