''Starbuck'' is a 2011

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

directed by

Ken Scott Ken Scott (born 20 April 1947) is a British record producer and engineer known for being one of the five main engineers for the Beatles, as well as engineering Elton John, Pink Floyd, Procol Harum, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Duran Duran, the Jef ...

and written by Scott and

Martin Petit Martin Petit (born September 24, 1968 in Laval, Quebec, Canada) is a Canadian comedian and actor. Creator and star of the Sit-com Les Pêcheurs (2012-2017) on Ici Radio-Canada. Known for his one-man shows, Grandeur Nature, Humour libre, Martin ...

. It stars

Patrick Huard Patrick Huard (born January 2, 1969) is a Quebec-born Canadian actor, writer and comedian. Career Patrick Huard broke into the Quebec show business scene in 1989 as a comedian, actor and television personality. A hard-working multifaceted talen ...

(''

Bon Cop, Bad Cop ''Bon Cop, Bad Cop'' is a 2006 Canadian dark comedy-Thriller (genre), thriller buddy cop film about two police officers – one Ontarian and one Quebec, Québécois – who reluctantly join forces to solve a murder. The dialogue is a mixture of E ...

'') as the main character,

Antoine Bertrand Antoine Bertrand (born September 13, 1977) is a Canadian film and television actor. He is best known for his roles in the television series ''Les Bougon'' and the films ''Louis Cyr'', a role that earned him the Iris Award for Best Actor, and '' S ...

as his friend/lawyer, and

Julie Le Breton Julie Le Breton is a French Canadian actress. She predominantly appears in French-language television series and films. Biography She is best known internationally for her appearance in '' The Rocket'', a French Canadian biopic about legendary i ...

as his girlfriend. The film's title refers to a Canadian

Holstein Holstein (; nds, label=Northern Low Saxon, Holsteen; da, Holsten; Latin and historical en, Holsatia, italic=yes) is the region between the rivers Elbe and Eider. It is the southern half of Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost state of German ...

bull, named Hanoverhill Starbuck, who produced hundreds of thousands of progeny by artificial insemination in the 1980s and 1990s.

Plot

In a 1988 prologue, David Wozniak is at a Quebec

sperm bank A sperm bank, semen bank, or cryobank is a facility or enterprise which purchases, stores and sells human semen. The semen is produced and sold by men who are known as sperm donors. The sperm is purchased by or for other persons for the purpose o ...

making a donation. Twenty-three years later, in 2011, he is a hapless deliveryman for his family's butcher shop, pursued by thugs to whom he owes $80,000. His girlfriend Valérie is pregnant with his child. One day, David returns from work to find a lawyer from the sperm bank who tells him he has fathered 533 children. Of those, 142 have joined a

class action A class action, also known as a class-action lawsuit, class suit, or representative action, is a type of lawsuit where one of the parties is a group of people who are represented collectively by a member or members of that group. The class actio ...

lawsuit to force the fertility clinic to reveal the identity of "Starbuck", the

alias Alias may refer to: * Pseudonym * Pen name * Nickname Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Alias'' (2013 film), a 2013 Canadian documentary film * ''Alias'' (TV series), an American action thriller series 2001–2006 * ''Alias the ...

he used as a sperm donor. David's friend and lawyer represents him as he tries to keep the records sealed. He provides David with profiles of each party to the lawsuit: David tracks down several of them, finding moments for providing help or encouragement. One is a severely disabled young man he visits in an institution. At one point, tailing one of them, David finds himself at a meeting of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against him. David decides to identify himself, but after the thugs assault his father, he agrees with his lawyer to sue the sperm bank for damages. He wins the lawsuit, receives $200,000, and keeps his identity secret. David has regrets, but his lawyer advises him that revealing his identity would require him to return the money he won from the lawsuit. After his father gives him his share of the family business so he can pay off his debt, David sends an e-mail identifying himself to the media. He goes to Valerie's house as she is going into premature labour. At the hospital, his baby is born, he proposes to Valerie, and many of the children show up to see him.

Cast

as David Wozniak/Starbuck *

as David's lawyer *

as Valérie *

Sarah-Jeanne Labrosse Sarah-Jeanne Labrosse (born August 16, 1991) is a Canadian actress from Quebec, most noted for her leading role as Donalda in the 2016-2021 television drama series ''Les Pays d'en haut''. The role garnered her a Gémeaux Award nomination for Bes ...

as Julie * Igor Ovadis as David's father, an immigrant from Poland. * Dominic Philie as Frère sombre * Marc Bélanger as Frère sympathique * David Michaël as Antoine * Patrick Martin as Étienne * David Giguère as speaker

Reception

''Starbuck'' was screened at the

2011 Toronto International Film Festival The 36th annual Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) was held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada between September 8 and September 18, 2011. Buenos Aires, Argentina was selected to be showcased for the 2011 City to City programme. The opening film ...

on 14–15 September 2011, where it was runner-up for the People's Choice Award. It was chosen "Most Popular Canadian Film" at the 2011 Vancouver International Film Festival. In September 2011, Chris Knight, the chief film critic for the ''

National Post The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper available in several cities in central and western Canada. The paper is the flagship publication of Postmedia Network and is published Mondays through Saturdays, with ...

'', called it a "sparkling crowd-pleaser" based on a "ludicrous premise, sure. But Scott's pithy script (co-written by Martin Petit), linked to Huard's likeable layabout, makes the whole thing as easy to take as candy from a baby." Upon its November 2012 UK release,

Peter Bradshaw Peter Bradshaw (born 19 June 1962) is a British writer and film critic. He has been chief film critic at ''The Guardian'' since 1999, and is a contributing editor at ''Esquire''. Early life and education Bradshaw was educated at Haberdashers ...

of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' gave it two stars out of five, and called it a "lame comedy-drama" that loses "almost all the charm of the real story...through the contrivances and overacting."

Box office

The film was the most successful

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

-made film within the

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...

in 2011, bringing in $3,399,338 in box office revenue for the year.

Remakes

A French remake, ''

Fonzy ''Fonzy'' is a 2013 French comedy film about a fish deliveryman in Paris becomes involved in a legal battle with his sperm donation children. The film is a remake of the Quebecois film '' Starbuck'' (2011). Plot Twenty years ago, Diego Costa, u ...

'', was released in France on 30 October 2013. José Garcia played the lead character. Scott co-wrote and directed an American remake, ''

Delivery Man Delivery is the process of transporting goods from a source location to a predefined destination. Cargo (physical goods) is primarily delivered via roads and railroads on land, shipping lanes on the sea, and airline networks in the air. Cer ...

''. It was produced by

DreamWorks Pictures DreamWorks Pictures (also known as DreamWorks SKG and formerly DreamWorks Studios, commonly referred to as DreamWorks) is an American film company and distribution label of Amblin Partners. It was originally founded on October 12, 1994 as a li ...

, and

Vince Vaughn Vincent Anthony Vaughn (born March 28, 1970) is an American actor. Vaughn began acting in the late 1980s, appearing in minor television roles before attaining wider recognition with the 1996 comedy-drama film '' Swingers''. He has appeared in ...

played the lead character. It was released on 22 November 2013.

References

External links

* (France) * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Starbuck 2011 films 2011 comedy films Canadian comedy films Films directed by Ken Scott Films set in Montreal Films set in 1988 Films set in 2011 Films shot in Montreal Canadian independent films Films about sperm donation French-language Canadian films Spanish-language Canadian films 2010s Canadian films Canadian pregnancy films 2011 multilingual films 2010s French-language films 2010s Spanish-language films 2011 independent films Canadian multilingual films