Sticky Fingers

Les Doigts croches, a.k.a. Sticky Fingers, is a new Québecois comedy about trying to go straight, to stop cheating, fibbing and cutting corners, so I?guess I should come clean right now: I haven’t seen this movie. In fact, hardly anyone has seen it outside of the cutting room. At press time, Les Doigts croches had yet to be reviewed by any of the Québec or national film critics. Its ‘World Premiere’ is July 31 in Québec... and, I’m happy to say, at the ByTowne as well. It’s quite a coup – we’ll be the only cinema outisde of la belle province to have it, but the timing means that you’ll have to make do with this brief description for now. I’m excited about Les Doigts croches because one of my favourite Québec comedies ever was La Grande Séduction (Seducing Dr. Lewis), the tender and warm fish-out-of-water tale written by Ken Scott. After writing several successful screenplays, Scott débuts as director here, working from his own original script that brings together great Québec actors like Roy Dupuis (Maurice Richard, Shake Hands With The Devil), Patrice Robitaille (Horloge biologique) and Claude Legault (Les 3 p’tits cochons). The action takes place in the early ’60s, when Charles (Roy Dupuis) assembles a rag-tag team of his friends – petty thieves and small-time scoundrels all – to pull off a bank heist. Predictably, the heist goes wrong, but one of the gang gets away with the loot while the police round up the others. Is there honour among thieves? When the five incarcerated thieves are released, they learn that their $2 million (an awful lot of money in the ’60s) is indeed waiting for them, but that to claim it, they have to trek the 800-plus kilometres of the pilgrimage of Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain. They must not only make the long march; they must demonstrate that they are reformed, and that their days of lies and larceny are behind them. So the movie takes a turn from caper comedy to a road movie, in which the travelling companions, as hopelessly unfit for the hike as they were for the bank job, demonstrate that they’ve got a lot to learn about friendship and trust. But don’t trust me: I haven’t seen the movie! Take a look at the trailer (link above), watch for articles about the film in the Québec media, and check our web site for real reviews as we get closer to the opening date. – Bruce White, ByTowne programmer