Starbuck (film)

Plot

In a 1988 prologue, David Wozniak is at a Quebec sperm bank making a donation. Twenty-three years later, in 2011, he is a hapless deliveryman for his family's butcher shop, pursued by thugs 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 lawsuit to force the fertility clinic to reveal the identity of "Starbuck", the alias 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.

Inspiration

The theme of the movie may have been inspired by the 2011 revelation that an anonymous U.S. donor was found to have produced at least 150 children. Few people are known with more children among the people with the most children.

Cast

Reception

Starbuck was screened at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival 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, 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 of The Guardian 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-made film within the province in 2011, bringing in $3,399,338 in box office revenue for the year.

Remakes

First Take Entertainment released Vicky Donor, a Bollywood version loosely based on the original, in 2012.

A French remake, Fonzy, was released in France on 30 October 2013. José Garcia played the lead character.

Scott co-wrote and directed an American remake, Delivery Man. It was produced by DreamWorks Pictures, and Vince Vaughn played the lead character. It was released on 22 November 2013.