Target Number One


Target Number One is a 2020 Canadian crime film directed by Daniel Roby. Based on the true story of Alain Olivier, a Canadian drug addict from Quebec who spent eight years in prison in Thailand in the 1980s after having been set up as an unwitting pawn in an espionage plot by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, the film stars Josh Hartnett as Canadian investigative journalist Victor Malarek, investigating the arrest of drug addict Daniel Léger. The film's cast also includes Jim Gaffigan, Stephen McHattie, Don McKellar, J.C. MacKenzie, and Amanda Crew.
The film was theatrically released in Canada on July 10, 2020, and on video on demand services in the United States on July 24, 2020.

Premise

In 1989, a Canadian journalist investigates the circumstances surrounding the suspicious arrest of Daniel Leger, a 25-year-old addict in a prison in Thailand.

Cast

Daniel Roby began his first research soon after concluding production of his 2007 debut film White Skin, and wrote the first draft of the script concurrently with his 2011 film Funkytown. However, he had difficulty attracting enough funding to make the film; although he took payment for the screenplay, he reinvested his directorial salary, as did the film's producers, into the film to keep it under its $7 million budget. To prepare the script, Roby attended the actual trials of Alain Olivier, flew to Thailand to interview witnesses, and read documents about the case. At one point he found an investor, had assembled a cast, and began pre-production, only to have the investor pull out.
The film finally entered production in June 2018 under the working title Gut Instinct, and was retitled Target Number One during the production process.

Reception

Box office

The film made an estimated $138,000 from 72 theaters in its Canadian opening weekend.

Critical response

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 63% based on 27 reviews, with an average rating of 6.53/10. On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 62 out of 100, based on seven critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Chris Knight of the National Post rated the film three stars out of five, writing that "The story, mostly devoid of car chases and gunfire except in one key scene, may strike some as a little dour, a touch too Canadian, and Target Number Ones fate outside our borders remains to be seen. But it's a crafty crime thriller, a rough-and-ready Heritage Minute given room to bloom into something worthy of its feature length. Run it up the flagpole, I say."