Is ‘One Week’ Canada’s ‘Into the Wild’?

Travel Blog  •  Eva Holland  •  03.03.09 | 3:41 PM ET

For such a vast (and, like its neighbor, public-transportation-challenged) country, Canada hasn’t produced as many great road trip movies as you might expect. Sure, there’s the quirky Thunder Bay-to-New Orleans indie, Highway 61, but most of the action takes place south of the border. And Dan Aykroyd’s brief cameo in “Canadian Bacon” never gets old, but if you want to be a purist about it, that’s an American-made movie. So there’s a void waiting to be filled here—and this week, we may finally have a candidate to fill it.

One Week stars Joshua Jackson as the terminally ill Ben, who decides to give up the daily grind and ride a vintage motorcycle from Toronto to Tofino, British Columbia, visiting corny landmarks and touching random strangers’ lives in unexpected ways as he goes. (Sound familiar?) Throw in a few cameos from Canadian rockers, an inevitable hockey reference or two, and some stunning wide-angle shots of mountains and prairie, and you get—as the Globe and Mail’s Liam Lacey puts it—an “alarmingly life-affirming road movie.” The film opens across Canada this Friday. There’s no word yet on a U.S. release, but we’ll keep you posted; I’m betting the scenery alone will make this one worth seeking out. Check out the trailer and see for yourself:


Eva Holland is co-editor of World Hum. She is a former associate editor at Up Here and Up Here Business magazines, and a contributor to Vela. She's based in Canada's Yukon territory.


2 Comments for Is ‘One Week’ Canada’s ‘Into the Wild’?

Geoff 03.04.09 | 12:58 AM ET

I recommend Going Down The Road or the classic NFB short starring Buster Keaton, The Railrodder . Dated no doubt, but they’re Canadian travelogue classics.

Livvy 03.04.09 | 10:47 AM ET

For us Canadian travellers, there’s a One Week contest. I entered it and sent a picture of my favourite CDN site. Get the deets: enroute.aircanada.com/oneweek

Otherwise, saw a preview of the movie. Not exactly “Into the Wild,” but 100%  Canuck, and certainly the ideal road trip.

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