[1] The film stars Eric McCormack as Owen Rinard, an uptight retirement home administrator in Spokane, who is caught cheating on the company's taxes by a resident, and is blackmailed into taking Gus (James Whitmore), Nelly (Kim Hunter), and Duncan (Ossie Davis) on a trip to Victoria, British Columbia, so that each can experience a long-held dream: Gus wants to go salmon fishing in the Pacific Ocean; Nelly, a former music teacher, wants to attend the symphony; and Duncan, a retired boxer, wants to attend a highly anticipated prize fight in Vancouver.
[2] Owen himself, in turn, meets and connects romantically with Carley (Marya Delver), an employee in the hotel casino.
[5] It also included several original songs by Michael Bublé, several years before he rose to international fame.
[6] In The Globe and Mail, Ray Conlogue wrote that Whitmore, Hunter, and Davis kept the movie watchable, but concluded that "Here's to Life starts briskly, develops shakily and finishes preposterously.
"[2] Ken Eisner of Variety called it a "by-the-numbers heartwarmer" which had the potential to be modestly successful among older audiences, but was likely to play better on television than in a theatre.